The Chair

My daughter is a master at throwing a good fit. I may joke about the siren going off, or that I will be putting that child in voice lessons (actually I'm quite serious about that one), but after listening to her wail every day and night, I sometimes find myself running for the bath as soon as my hubby gets home. At least while taking a bath I have two doors separating my poor ears and her powerful lungs. What's worse is she has taught her baby brother to scream and throw tantrums, so he now follows me around crying at me all day long.

I have watched the nanny shows, talked with other parents, and yes, I took my own mother’s advice. What may work in one family does not always work for another. Nothing I tried seemed to work, until one day I saw Allyssa’s princess chair that went with her table set and umbrella. The chair was facing the kitchen wall, and Allyssa was mid-wail. With nothing to lose, I led her to the chair, told her to sit, and said she wasn’t allowed to get up until she could be a big girl and stop crying. A few sniffles later she apologized to me, and gave me a hug and a kiss. It worked.

The next day, she decided to push Bubby. Again, I led her to The Chair, and made her sit. She was instructed this time that she had to sit for two minutes. This time she apologized to Bubby and went on her merry way.

Now when she throws a tantrum, I threaten to make her sit in the chair. If the wailing continues after the count of three (and yes Shelly I do know how to count higher), She goes to the time out chair. I wait for the wailing to stop, and then set the timer on the stove for two minutes. When the timer goes off, she gets up quiet and happy. At the end of the day, she has to tell Daddy how many times she had to visit The Chair.  Now it’s time to start training Bubby who has a jump start on his terrible twos, thanks to his big sister.

On another Allyssa issue, we are also working on potty training. Thanks to the pull-ups commercia,l she is fascinated with the potty dance, and cannot wait for the chance to go use the potty. Way to go pull-ups! Tonight, she would run to her water cup get a drink, and then run back to her potty chair and wait for potty. When she couldn’t make it come out, she would run back to her cup. This process went on for about an hour before I forced her to go to bed. I’m really excited to have her so interested in going on the potty! Maybe no more diapers are in her near future? A mama can dream…

Ta!

A.McBay