Discipline

Four kids, all close in age, seems to breed arguments. Particularly from the Nigel and Emmaline arena. Those two fight over nothing pretty much all the time. So tonight I announced that starting tomorrow all arguments and fights and tears will be resolved on the Repenting Stairs. This is my twist on the Repenting Bench. Our stairs are hardwood and would not be comfortable to sit on for very long. The point of the Repenting Stairs is that the kids will have to sit there- next to each other- until they can tell the other one what they themselves did wrong. Once they can both admit their own part in the fight (I predict that this will be difficult for both Emmaline and Nigel), they have to say sorry and hug each other.

Emmaline’s response to this announcement was, “What if I have to go to the bathroom while I’m sitting there?” I told her that if she has to go to the bathroom while she’s in trouble, then she’d better own up to her mistakes and say sorry quickly. (She didn’t really like that.)

The form of censure that our kids are already quite familiar with is putting their nose against the wall. It’s essentially a time out place that doesn’t require a special chair or corner. The best part about it is that wall’s are everywhere! All of the kids have tolerated and mildly disliked putting their nose against the wall. Usually they stand there and fume. Except for Max. For some reason, Max thinks it is the most hilarious game ever when he has to put his nose against the wall. Tonight we were at Ernie’s office and Max was rude to Emmaline, so I told him to put his nose against the wall until he was ready to be nice. At which point, Max literally skipped over, happily placed his nose against the wall and said (with his nose pressed into the wall), “I counting! 1,2,3,1,2,3…”.

Apparently we need to find another way to put Max in time out, because now we know that he thinks that he is simply playing hide-and-go-seek every time we put him there.