Anaya came to me distraught this afternoon. "Mommy, I want to be alone in my room, but Skyler won't leave me alone!"
"What's wrong with having your brother in your room?"
"I want to talk to myself. Can you please make him go away?"
We talked through the options, what Jesus would do if His little brother wanted to be in the room, how she could make the choice to be happy, and why Skyler wanted to be with her. But she was adamant. "I really don't want him in my room. Would you please take him out?"
"Okay," I sighed. "Skyler, you can come watch a video."
"Wait!" Anaya squealed. "I want to watch a video!"
"If you want to watch a video, you still have to clean the playroom," I pointed out.
Anaya marched in and surveyed the disaster. "I don't wanna clean the playroom..." she began.
"That's complaining," I reminded her. "Let's look at the chart and see what the consequence is for complaining." Since she can't read, I pointed to it. "What is the consequence here?"
"I can't...remember," lied my little trooper.
"Bad idea," I said. "Here's the consequence for lying: a spank and a time out. Now, are you going to tell me that you don't remember? This is your last chance."
Anaya muttered and grumbled through the discipline session, and would never come out and tell the truth. In the end she got a spank and three time outs (12 minutes total). So I took her to her room. "You'll have to stay here for 12 minutes, until the timer goes off," I stated.
The punishment was too great to be borne, apparently. "I want Skyler with me!"
1 comment:
This is hilarious! How often do we get what we want only to find it's not what we wanted! :)
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