Rachel's first timeout

I had hoped we'd never have to use that dreaded phrase that I hate: "timeout." What happened to good old-fashioned discipline? And my daughter was going to be a meek, obedient child, right? HA HA HA HA HA.

Tonight I figured out that a timeout was the only way to get Rachel to stop being, well, Rachel 2 (see previous posts).

I picked her up from daycare today and she seemed fine when she got home. Drew (who is here all week because he was gone all last week) had gotten dinner warmed up and on the table so we were all ready to eat our matzo ball soup and salad and then adjourn to the living room and playtime.

Well, The Little Girl had other ideas.

Oh, the crying and the wailing and the yelling when Drew refused to cuddle her while he was eating because, frankly, she is too big to manage amongst bowls and plates and knives and glasses. She absolutely refused to stop, even when Drew and I explained patiently that if she was finished with dinner she could go play but that Mommy and Daddy were still eating. We tried to have some conversation but her crying got harder and harder to ignore. Drew tried putting her back in her booster seat and giving her something to eat but it STILL didn't work.

Finally, I scooped her up and said, "You're going to your room if you won't stop crying." Then I turned on her bedroom light and shut the door behind me.

The wailing continued but it was much more bearable listening to it from far away rather than dealing with it right next to us.

Then it got very quiet and I became worried. You're supposed to give the same amount of timeout as the kid's age -- 2 minutes for age 2, 6 minutes for age 6, etc. but Drew suggested we finish all our dinner (which took us about 15 minutes because he really wanted to talk to me) and then go check on her.

And when we did...she was lying down on the rug, her butt up in the air, in a sleeping position. Just as if she had settled down to take a little nap.

Then we played a little in the living room, had Second Dinner (wherein she finished up her sweet potato and chicken jarred dinner) and then she and Drew read books because she didn't want Mommy tonight. She wanted Daddy.

Which is really what I think the issue was, although Drew noted that by the time she was on a real crying jag she had forgotten what she was crying about. He reminded me that kids her age are dealing with lots of emotions that sometimes scare them and they have no idea of how to control them. Thus the temper tantrums and crying.

I STILL think it's because she missed him when he was gone last week.