Crime and Punishment

My children are as good as gold. Aren't yours? They never do anything wrong and they're perfect little angels all the time. Nevertheless, I like to be prepared so I developed a discipline plan. I'd hate to be seen as a groupie or anything, but that 'Supernanny' has some good ideas. In an effort to distance myself somewhat, I refused to name my spot the 'naughty' spot and thus we have the 'time out' spot in our family. Besides, as I said, this is only a contingency plan . . . right?

About a month ago, I decided the spot needed a label so I created a sign and Princess helped me post it. She was ever so excited about the project. She was even excited when we got to use it later that day. In fact, I'm sure she was naughty only because she wanted to sit under 'her' sign.

You, too, can have an exciting time out. Just place sign . . .

The routine is something like this: No, Mommy doesn't want you to jump off the roof today. (time passes without compliance) Princess, go to time out. You didn't do as mommy said. Princess trots over to time out and sits under her sign. Two minutes later mommy comes over and we have the following conversation:
Me: "Princess, do you know why you're in time out?"
Princess: "Princess no jump off roof."
Me: "That's right. Mommy said not to jump off the roof and you didn't listen. What do you need to say now?"
Princess: "Sorry, mommy for not obeying."
Me: "I love you."
Or at least that's how it's supposed to go.

The first variation on the theme came when Thor decided that Princess looked lonely and came to keep her company. He's a great little companion, but really, doesn't that just defeat the purpose?! Sometimes he looks at me and seems to understand that Princess is actually in disgrace. Then he grabs her hair and pushes her head into the wall. Somehow the fact that he, being so young, can get away without a time out while Princess sits there for refusing to pass the butter seems incongruous.

Just who's having the time out here?

Then we have the apology technique. At some point, Daddy suggested Princess needed to say "Sorry, Daddy for disobeying." Since she'd already learned about 'not obeying' from me, the final result was, "Sorry, Daddy, for dis not obeying". And it stuck. Mommy gets the plain old version, but daddy gets the souped up, special Princess version.

In the last few weeks, Princess has developed several newer variations on the theme. They include, "mommy, I need to go potty", "I'm ready to talk now mommy", and "I don't want time out. I'll (fill in the blank here)." What do kids do while they're in playgroups? Exchange ideas?!