Giggles and Laughs - Discipline Chapter

For anyone who knows my son, he is a very determined child and not many things deter him - including discipline. This has made things rather interesting and comical as his parents because we have literally tried every kind of discipline imaginable. Well lately he has entered into a new phase of the "independent two's" (I hope by calling it this instead of the terrible that I can keep a better perspective of why he is so difficult sometimes :). Here are just a few things that have happened...

ROUND 1
At the table during lunch, Cole decided to eat his mac and cheese with his hands. Not a huge problem but I prefer he eats with his spoon since he can. I explained to him that big boys eat with their spoons and asked him to please do so. He contemplated this and decided mom really didn't know anything. I then warned him that if he continued I would smack his hand and then take away his mac and cheese if he couldn't listen to mom. He looked at me, grabbed a handful of mac and cheese, and stuffed it in his mouth. But the next part is what killed me - he then smacked his own hand twice, took his mac and cheese, placed it across the table and proclaimed "I disobey I take away my mac and cheese." He sat for a couple seconds and then again declared, "Okay, I good." He walked back to his mac and cheese, grabbed it, and went back to his seat to finish lunch. Maybe I'm bad but one, I didn't know how to quite react to what he had just done, and two - I couldn't help but smother my laughter.

ROUND 2
Cole pulled some toilet paper off to wipe his nose, put it in the toilet to flush but instead I heard him pull the soggy paper back out of the toilet to play with it. Yuck, I know. We have taught he mutliple times not to play in the toilet but as I turned to grab him and yet again teach him we don't do this, he decided to take matters into his own hands. I watched him quickly smack his own hand 6 times (very seriously too) and tell himself sternly like a mother. "Yuck, we don't play in the toilet."

ROUND 3
On one day Cole had purposely been disobeying EVERYTHING I told him to do or not do. Thankfully these days don't happen often but when they do it makes for a LONG day and requires more patience than I can sometimes muster. I don't remember exactly what he was doing but I do know it was dangerous (like playing with the knives or something) so I told him after warning him twice that if I had to ask him not to do it again I would spank him. He looked at me, marched over and did exactly what I told him not too! I stood up and explained, "Cole, you disobeyed and now I am going to spank you" But, he beat me to his discipline by doing it himself! He quickly leaned over, and swatted himself, saying, "No, no Cole. We don't do that", looked at me and said "Okay, I good".

GRAND FINALE
Yesterday at breakfast I got Cole's food ready and him eating. I then quickly cleaned the kitchen and sat down to eat my own breakfast. Cole finished first and decided that since he was done, mom should be too. He ran into the other room and started calling out "Come on mommy, time to play". I explained to him that I needed to finish my breakfast and then I would come play. This conversation repeated several times until Cole ran over to me, and asked one more time. I explained to him again that I needed to finish my breakfast. At this point he looked at me very sternly and said" Mommy if you can't obey, I will spank you" and then proceeded to try to spank me. I couldn't help but laugh! I was being discipline by my two year old for not doing what he asked!!!


DISCLAIMER - Now, for the record I really do have a very sweet, loving son who loves to help me - he just has his days like we all do. Most of his discipline issues began when I got put on bed rest and now can't do as much, all children retest the limits when something like this happens. But man he makes me laugh, even when I probably shouldn't be doing so!!