My little debater...

Ah...loss of priviledge. It's a natural consequence and I feel like such a MOM taking one away, and sticking to my word.

So today, my darling child asked if he could ride his scooter around the block at a friend's house, to which both of us Mommies replied, "No. We can't see you over there, and the answer is no." No fussing, off he rode, AROUND THE BLOCK, and came back to announce, "I did it."

Natural consquence says, WE ARE DONE PLAYING OUTSIDE TODAY. This is painful too, because it was gloriously nice out. Warm, blue skies, kids playing. Perfect day. Too perfect to call it a day, but we are, I did, I am the MOM. (We are working on LISTENING.)

Oh, the tears lasted, he was going to fight his case and beg and plead for me to change my mind. First hugs with tears. Then he made me cards with stickers. he offers 66 kisses - which is appealing, but the tears...It's hard NOT to laugh at your child when he's saying...

"You picked the WRONG priviledge to take away! You should have taken away the T.V. today. I don't care about the T.V. at all today! It's a nice day Mom. All the kids are playing. I need fresh air. You took away the wrong privilege! TAKE AWAY THE T.V. INSTEAD. You're not being a very good Mom since you picked the wrong one." (And he's crying huge tears the whole time he's arguing his point.)

After a moment of silence I gently reminded him that I am always going to take away the priviledge he wants most to keep. That's how Mommies do it!

He got over it at last. I almost caved, but didn't. Good for me. Tonight he asked about the weather for tomorrow. I told him it was going to be a very nice day with lots of sunshine and I asked him to guess what privilege I would take away if he wasn't going to listen...he didn't say T.V. I think he's on to me! Live and learn my little one.