Saturday, November 15, 2008

Get in your playroom!

Josh just left for his weekend with friends and the kids are tearing each other apart. My classic line is, “When I find myself losing patience at 8am, I know it isn’t going to be a good day.” The weather outside is cloudy and rainy. The damp chill seeps into the bones and spirit, prompting an extra layer of clothing and high pitched whining from my children, typical pre-holiday weather for Indiana.

And so, I am implementing a new strategy today. If my darling little ones cannot find the means to problem-solve like civilized people as they wander the house, they will need to do so together in a dual time out in the playroom. Instead of separating them, or just letting them work it out in a loud fashion right next to me, I am placing them both in the playroom together with the following instructions:

“ You two will need to solve this problem together in here. Once you have a workable solution that you both agree to, you may join me in the rest of the house. I am setting the timer for 5 minutes. You may not come out until you hear it beep.”

So, I will get a little writing in while I wait…

And there is it, beep, beep, beep…the infamous timer. Who knew my microwave would morph from fast food preparation to an integral tool in my parenting procedures? Duty calls and the experiment continues…

1 comment:

no way said...

I am a big proponent of the microwave timer too. I use it to trick Sean into falling asleep-as in, "Stay in here until the timer beeps." And then I never set it, and he falls asleep waiting for it.

Ha ha ha ha! You know,sometimes you just have to.