Oh my mom used to use that one on me often.
"Well," I would always think indignantly, "when I have a daughter, I'll know just what to do. I will NEVER _____."
And now here I am, Evy's been in pretty much a perpetual time out for the past week. And I am at a complete loss. She's currently in her room without music or stories. I tell her to do something and she responds with "I don't want to." (You must hear this in the most whiny voice your head can muster.) At the slightest bit of resistance to her little three-year-old plans she immediatly goes into super-tantrum mode. She's screaming, crying, hitting. Who is this girl? (and what has she done with my angel baby??) I was carrying her flailing body up to her room thinking I'm totally out of ideas. How do you teach respect? How do you teach submission to authority? How do I make her understand obedience and her place in our family? I wish my mom were here to call. I'd say...
"We were such plesant, obedient children."
(she would laugh at me)
"But we did respect and we did mind you."
"you were good kids," she'd have to admit.
But I know I was three once too, and I'm sure I had my fair share of tantrums, my little three-year-old emotions all awash over my little mind.
And she must've stood in the kitchen wondering where her baby went and if the pleaseing, obedient child would ever return...I just wish I could ask her what she learned...
any ideas anyone?
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Three years old, eh? Ah yes, the infamous age that has grown men and women across America cowering in the aisles of Target pleading with their toddler to “quiet down pleeeeease” in more of a desperate request than a parental suggestion. Back when I was trying to conquer my own little darling and his newfound resistance to the world around him, I sought the same pearls of wisdom that you are now in search of. I remember feeling a strange combination of despair and acceptance when my father-in-law gave me his spin on it. “Felecia” he said, “The terrible two’s are behind you. You’re learning that there is such a thing as trying three’s, and you will one day find out about the f’’ing four’s.” As harsh as that sounded, he went on to explain that every stage has its challenges. It’s a parent’s responsibility to learn how to consistently adapt to the never-ending cycle of emotions, disobedience, social abnormalities, fears, etc. The best remedy I have found is humor. That, and the phrase “this too shall pass” (so you had better gear up for the next unexpected series of events!)
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