New Experiences
This week was full of new experiences. Watching Hayden learn about the world around her has been incredible. This week Hayden discovered that she too can flush the toilet. No morning is complete until she crawls into the bathroom, hoists herself to standing position and repeatedly flushes. Apparently, this is very serious business because she won’t crack a smile. She will just flush and stare with an intense look on her face.
I’ve also been doing a lot of research about discipline. I figured that I should probably have an idea about how to properly discipline her. By nature, I’m pretty laid back. My friends always made fun of me because my favorite line throughout my 20’s was “That’s fine”… “It’ll be fine”… “Who cares?... It’s fine”. That has been pretty much my approach to Hayden’s antics. I mean, besides being a diva, how much trouble could she possibly get into? Well, I’m learning. She wants to eat soap. She destroyed my last laptop (FYI, this blog is coming live from my brand new laptop!). She de-programmed the television so that it no longer had volume. My mother still isn’t sure what she did to their home phone that no longer accepts calls. She prank called several of my past clients at 6:30 in the morning from my cell. She deleted all of my Mom’s pictures off her cell phone. She hid all my credit cards around the house. She destroyed all my coupons in my pocketbook. She’s done all of this in the past week.
All of those things are pretty annoying, but it’s her little attitude that really alarms me. If she sees something she wants that she can’t have, she will throw herself backwards and scream until you give it to her. The SECOND you hand it to her, she smiles and will stop her tantrum immediately. How can such a beautiful little girl be so manipulative? So, now I’m worried. I’m okay with raising a diva. I’m not okay with raising a spoiled brat. Nevertheless, I’ve been researching discipline. It made me take a second to stop and think about what tactics Paul and I would mutually agree to use. I’ve learned a lot in the past week. Apparently, consistency is key. Fantastic. I’m a lot of things, but consistent is something that I’m normally called. I’ve learned that Hayden is the type of child who most likely won’t respond to just “no” and I will have to continuously remove her from situations that I do not want her in. I “removed her” from the bathroom cabinet thirteen times yesterday. Not bad for a Mommy who lacks consistency. I’ll tell you though, this morning as she crawled with purpose over to the cabinet, I really didn’t feel like removing her again… for the fourteenth time. But I did. We’ll see tomorrow if she tries again.
I had one of my very best friends over a couple weeks ago and I was complaining about all the silly things that Hayden does. My friend was quiet and just kept smiling. After I finished with a huff and a big gulp of my Pinot Grigio, she looked at me and simply said “She’s exactly like you, you know.” I rolled my eyes and dismissed her. Looking back on it though, she’s probably right. My Mom still tells me what to do, and I still don’t listen. My Mom has been consistently telling me for 30 years what to do. I hope I can do the same for Hayden. I wonder if she’ll listen…