I’ve decided that if you want to know—really know—what you look like when you discipline your child, just watch him or her discipline a stuffed animal or doll. Over the last few days, Baby Bunny has been hitting and kicking Simon while they wrestle. He’s not trying to be mean; he just gets wound up and doesn’t listen when Simon tells him to calm down or asks him to stop kicking. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
After each infraction, Simon tells me exactly what happened and asks me to “please talk to Baby Bunny, mommy?” So I do, telling Baby Bunny that I know he was just wrestling and having fun, but that it’s not nice to kick, especially if Simon has asked him not to. I also explain that if he continues to be so rough, that Simon won’t want to play with him any more, and he’ll have to have a time out.
Well, Baby Bunny, much like Simon, is having a hard time fully complying with these instructions. He keeps pestering Simon, and I have to keep talking to him. After each chat, Simon says very sternly,
No baby bunny. No. Stop kicking me. You go in here [the guest bedroom] and think about it for a while. You have a time out now.
As he says this, he carries Baby Bunny into the guest bedroom and sits him on the day bed. Saturday, poor Baby Bunny must gone to time out a dozen times. I’m not terribly invested in Baby Bunny’s learning anything from this, but I sure hope Simon is!
I remember my mother doing a serious examination of conscience when she overheard my sister playing “Mean Mommy” with her dolls. The essence of this game was the doll being semi-slammed against the table accompanied by the words, “Severely punished.”