I have become hyper-aware of this issue with my youngest
kiddo who is approaching his second birthday. He has become a ferret and is in
to absolutely everything and he is constantly testing and pushing me –
intentionally. He will get really quiet and I know he has found something or
gotten into something that HE knows he isn’t supposed to. When I catch
up to him he is either waiting for me with cupboard open or holding a spray
bottle or he is already at work with his spoils. At any rate, I tell him ‘no’
more and more and he doesn’t respond until I get very firm. So I am totally
training him to only react when mom loses her cool.
I realized that this is why Jim Fay of ‘Love and Logic’ has
you sing the ‘Uh Oh’ song. It shows them that you are in complete control and
they now get to lose out on whatever naughtiness they are in the middle of.
This takes effort on our part because then we have to actually DO something
about it right off the bat if we do mean business. And if you are wondering
what the ‘Uh Oh’ song is, google it in connection with Love and Logic but it
goes a little something like this:
Uh oh! Uh oh! A little bedroom time coming up. So sad! I’ll
see you when you are sweet!
Keep your cool by using certain phrases – ‘No problem!’ or ‘Not
to worry!’ for the older ones while you collect your composure and decide on a
plan and use the ‘Uh Oh’ song or a pleasant tone when you time them out to
their room or have them do time in a corner or simply remove them from the high
chair if they are throwing food! Keep yourself chill when things get nuts so
your kids know that you mean business from the get go and not just when you get
mad or you start yelling.
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