Sammy's Lesson...Learned????

Tonight Sammy got in trouble. She hit her dad. On the back. With a chair. A folding chair.

It was a miniature chair, but still made of metal and canvas and just because it had a big picture of a smiling Winnie-the-Pooh didn't make it hurt any less. So she sat in her room on her new big bed and cried in time-out. (Our kids' rooms lose all their appeal when we make them stay in there by themselves!)

Last night, Sammy hit Robert over the head with a Barbie and we went through the same thing so it was obvious that a time-out and an apology just wasn't going to cut it. Mr. Heather advocated for a one hour time-out. (He's normally pretty laid back so I was kind of surprised and decided to intervene.) She and I started talking about yesterday's incident, apologized to her dad, and then talked about how hitting was bad. This last part was repeated several times and I made her say it. Then, I told her that if she wasn't going to play with her toys nicely then I would take every toy out of her room and she would not be allowed to play with toys in room. (It might seem harsh, but I never said for how long!) She understood that. That definitely registered. Then, Robert did his time-out (which lasted maybe 5 minutes and didn't hurt her) and she very well-behaved the rest of the night.

At story time, she said (unprompted) that it was OK to hit balls. I agreed. She said she would be nice and went into this whole thing about hitting (basically repeating what I had told her an hour and a half ago)! I was pleased. Robert carried her to bed and she told him too and then said that would only tickle Daddy. Hopefully, we got through to her this time. Guess we'll find out tomorrow! Wish us luck!


Positive discipline requires a lot of creativity and patience. No yelling, no screaming, no spanking. We both agree on this. The only exception is that I will spank if she kicks me and she knows it! It's only happened twice-both when I was trying to get her dressed in the morning and she was uncooperative. Sammy and I both learned that you can be uncooperative without kicking! That's OK, I can handle that.