Time out?

Rachel here. Now before I start I will say my child is VERY well behaved. Granted we have the occasional break down, which does seem to be more frequent these days, but she's only human. She's thrown 3 types of temper tantrums. 1. The "I'm tired woman, and I'm trying to tell you we need to leave the Target RIGHT NOW!" tantrum. This type of tantrum would in fact be my fault. She'll start to realize that fresh air is dreamy even if that fresh air comes from a store. 2. The "How dare you tell me I can't have a bath right now" tantrum. Seriously if she says "bath?" and you say "not right now," run for the hills. To say she LOVES her bath would be an understatement. And the ever popular 3. "I think you're done brushing your teeth now, may I have your toothbrush?" tantrum. Expect tears and a ridiculous amount of screeching. All of these types of tantrums are hardly discipline worthy in my opinion, so discipline has been an unneeded tactic in our home.

UNTIL NOW. Background please. Reese loves to throw things... ever since she saw Bryan throwing Winston's toys to him to play fetch, she's been in awe. It's super cute when she throws his toys at him... yes at him... she hasn't quite gotten the entire concept down, but we're working on it. What's not cute is her throwing hard objects at Winston, at Bryan, and at myself... with vengeance. It's not the cute little "here lemme throw this book very lightly at you." It's "darn it I want to play outside but it's too cold... blah di blah di blah... so I'm going to throw my Magna Doodle at your leg MOMMY!" Or better yet... "Leave me alone! I'm busy frolicking in the laundry room and would like some privacy!" Well, we'd immediately get down to her level, look her seriously in the eye, and give her a stern NO! She laughed in our faces. SHE LAUGHED IN OUR FACES! I've seen this shenanigans on 'Super Nanny,' and no child of mine is going to laugh in my face while I'm trying to make her a sweet little girl. We then upgraded to the stern NO and point. She laughed. I felt like I already lost control and needed Nanny Jo Frost to come into my home and make it harmonious.

BUT THEN IT HAPPENED. We found something that worked. Now it didn't work the first time. It didn't work the second or even the third time. It worked this morning though. I started trying to put her into time out. This morning she chucked her Magna Doodle at me for no particular reason... it was quite Sybilish really... not cool. I swiped her up put her on her 'naughty spot' right in front of the door to go out to the garage away from Daddy and me. The first couple of times I placed her here, she would get right up and chase me... over and over again... 20-30 times easy. Finally I would sit down with her and she would come and sit on my lap and cry. When she calmed down, I told her that was naughty of her and that it can hurt people. This was how we rolled those first 3 failed attempts at time out. This morning though I think I placed her down only 3 or 4 times, AND THEN SHE STAYED! SHE STAYED! She was screaming her head off and ripped her socks off of her feet in a fit of rage, but SHE STAYED! After taking her picture and doing a little happy dance, and once she calmed down, I went over to her, sat down (she immediately jumped into my lap), and told her it was not nice to throw things... then I gave her a gigantic hug and lots of kisses. I felt awful, but SHE HUGGED ME BACK, so I knew all was right with the world. It may not work when she's 16, but I think I bought myself some time until she's at least in first grade. :)