Just when you think your child is going to push you over the edge--and you just realized that there really is an edge and that it's not just a figure of speech--he does something really sweet.
Last night, William was saying his prayer. It was a fairly short one, mostly thanks for his mommy and daddy and his big boy bed, but then he added, "and please help my friend (A) from school feel better soon." His little friend had been absent from school the day before because she had been sick, so he wanted to pray for her to get well.
I love those moments. I think those are the kinds of moments that help parents like me to get through the other kinds of moments, the edge moments. You know. The moment when you find out your child had to go to the director's office at school for misbehaving again. Or the moment when you have to literally wrestle your child into his room for a time out because he just. won't. go. Or the moment when your child flings M&Ms across the bathroom because you won't let him pick out his own massive handful of candy as a reward for going poopy on the potty.
As for future edge moments, well, let's just say that I'm reading a book called 1,2,3 Magic that multiple people have recommended to me. I'm learning about how to react with less emotion and more consistency when William deliberately does something that he's not supposed to do. I'm learning that I need to stop explaining so much to my son when he misbehaves. (That, of course, is hard. I'm a writer. I use words for a living.) And I'm trying to coach myself into believing that it will work...eventually.
And in the meantime, I am going to keep believing in the good moments to get me through the hard times. Like the moment this morning when my son crawled up onto my bed and gently kissed both my cheeks and said cheerfully, "I love you, Mommy!" We'll get through this Terrible (Almost) Threes. We will.
(We will, won't we?)
3 comments:
For what it's worth, the book you mentioned is one some of my old supervisors in grad school used. Good tactics. Glad W has redeemed himself and that you're not going to sell him... yet... :)
MC
For what it's worth, the book you mentioned is one some of my old supervisors in grad school used. Good tactics. Glad W has redeemed himself and that you're not going to sell him... yet... :)
MC
I read Dr. Rosemond's column every Sunday in the paper. I know he's got some rough edges and has his detractors, but most of what the man says makes a lot of sense to me. I would have sent you a book by him already but 1) there's those detractors and 2) seems hypocritical for me the non-parent to send you a parenting book.--Amy
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