Discipline

Whew...some days Victoria wears me out! I can get so frustrated because she rips off the sofa cushions, I put them back and say no, no, she does it again. I put them back and say don't do it again or you're going to time out. She does it again. I say Victoria I told you not to play with the sofa cushions and you are not listening so you are going to time out. She screams, goes to time out, and then rips the cushions off again. I say Victoria you are being bad and you are going to get a spanking if you do it again...while I am putting them on again. She rips them off again and gets a spanking.....repeat...and repeat again. I just cannot get through to that child sometimes. Then, 5 seconds later, she looks at me and says "Kiss Mommy" then puckers up. She kisses me and says "to the moon and back....thiiiiiissss much!!!" (This is her combining I love you to the moon and back and I love you this much.) This completely melts my heart and I immediately feel horrible for spanking her. Was I too hard on her? I need to have more patience. Parenting is super hard. It has fairly recently magically occurred to me I can't coddle her after disciplining her (hardest thing ever) and that makes me feel worse. It sends mixed signals though. Sometimes I am not patient enough, but a lot of times she just needs discipline. Last week my pastor did a sermon that included how you discipline your children because you love them. I reeeeaaaalllllyyyy needed to hear that.

So here's encouragement to the the mommies who know we have to teach our children there are boundaries and you can't just say "Oh they're just being a kid" all the time. My precious daughter obviously still loves me very much and I would say in spite of discipline, but I think it's a little....strike that.....a lot because she does have discipline. She knows what is expected of her and that's comforting to children. Heck...it's comforting to me when I know what is expected of me! LOL!

I debated this odd topic for a while, but just felt like blabbing about it so there it is!

ETA: I had to edit this because of course she pushes her boundaries in many other ways than just ripping off cushions (like finding pens and coloring all over herself, climbing on top of the bathroom counter and playing with soap and water, etc.). That was just the example I was using. She's 2....pushing boundaries and having consequences is her full time job;)