Been having some trouble with 5-year-old temper tantrums for the past few days. I’ve been praying for wisdom with how to deal with them. As usual, when you ask, you eventually receive. =) Today I came up with something that worked. As he was about to hit, I told him to count to five to calm down, and he actually did.
His hand was still raised like he was going to hit, though. =) So I said, “Ok, if you choose to hit, you’re going to get some disciplinary action that shall not be named on the internet that rhymes with “frank”, and then you’ll go upstairs to time out for 15 minutes. If you choose not to hit, you’ll only have to go to time out for 5 minutes upstairs. I hope you choose the right thing.” Would you believe it, the little whipper snapper actually chose option no. 2. Hallelujah! (I’m writing this down because I’ll need to remember it later when it all goes to pot again… hopefully temporarily.)
I got them all ready to go to a friend’s house after Seth’s timeout for a little playtime. Of course, the bottom fell out of the sky as soon as I’d snapped Ben into his infant carrier.
So I set it down, and we stood in the open front doorway and watched the rain pour down and blow sideways. Ben was mesmerized. The boys ran out onto the porch and squealed and yelled, “Batten down the hatches!” They’d run inside, pretend to have a hard time closing the door, and then sigh exaggeratedly in relief. Then they’d open the door and do it all again. At one point, Evan bent down and put his arm around Ben’s little head in the carrier. He said, “I’ll protect him from the storm, Mommy.”
Such a simple little thing it was…. just watching a storm together. But I’ll remember it.
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