Discipline

Ick. I hate the discipline part of parenting. I know I need to discipline, and I will, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

DH has his way of disciplining and I have my way.

DH is what I would call old fashioned. If Handsome does something wrong, he will yell at him, tell him what he did wrong, and spank. Then there will be a staring contest. DH doesn't spank hard, so it doesn't actually hurt. As a result, Handsome will look at your face to see if you meant to punish or if you were just playing with him. If you start to laugh he will laugh like nothing happened, and continue playing. If you remain with a straight face so he knows you are serious he will start to cry and know he did something wrong.

For me, I warn "Handsome, don't pour milk on the table. If you do again then I will take the milk away." He'll look at me, sometimes sad, and sometimes with a smirk, and then he'll continue what he was doing. I then take the milk away. Sometimes he is sad and sometimes he doesn't really care and he'll just go pick something else to play with.

For a while I tried to do the staring thing that DH does. I can't do it. I see his little face and I just have to smile. His little pouty face is so cute, and when he has that little smirk how can you not laugh? Well, laughing defeats the whole discipline purpose. I always lose the staring contests and DH chides me for this. Oops.

Today I decided to start the whole time out thing. Handsome poured his milk on the table - A LOT of milk. So I told him he wasn't supposed to do that and then sat him down in a corner while I went to get paper towels. He tried to get up a few times, and I just put him right back. He cried his little heart out, but I managed to remain strong. Once he sat still I cleaned up the milk and then went to sit next to him. I told him he wasn't supposed to put milk on the table, and then told him I loved him and held him. As soon as I was holding him he was ok again. He had the little tears on his cheeks, but he was ok. After that he didn't want me to let him go, so he sat with me on the couch for a little while. He probably didn't cry for more than 30 sec - 1 min, but it was enough to be effective. I know he's supposed to sit still for an entire minute, but I figured since it was the first time I would give him some slack.