I am not sure why I did this...I think I would like to place blame on my dad but really I just need to talk to the woman in the mirror and admit its my own doing.
It started with our hot water closet on our upstairs level. This unknown room had become a fascination to Mason, we obviously do not want him in there so I told him that is where dinosaurs live. When he would ask to see them I would tell him they are sleeping. Fear Tactic #1.
Than about 6 months back when Mason started not listening to me AT ALL I would use fear tactic #2 to get him to stop doing whatever mischievous thing he was doing. For example, we needed to leave the house and he would say "No" and would want to stay upstairs unsupervised...the first few times I would try to grab him and this would turn into a fun game of chase and my blood pressure would soar and my head would spin. When I would catch him a nice tantrum of kicking would ensue so I thought maybe if I try to trick him, scare him, this will end the battle. I would tell him "ok bye, watch out for the monsters!" and head down the stairs. Seconds later he would come screaming down the stairs and we could leave....
At this point you think I would have enough common sense to ask my self "at some point is he going to start having nightmares about this or is scaring your kid really a good move?" But it all seemed to be working so I stuck with it...well it still works but now we have constant conversation about monsters and dinosaurs, especially right before bed. That's right I lied to my kid and I screwed him up! Lets hope its temporary.
And to top it all off he has developed some additional fears about showering and toe nail clippers.
He usually gets a bath but if we are in a hurry we just throw him in with one of us...try holding a slippery wet toddler that is screaming bloody murder and wiggling like a baby pig, not easy. I think this fear is interesting because he has no problem sticking his head in the sprinkler or the pool!
The toe nail clippers or for that matter touching his feet is a whole other ball of wax...
We like to tease him and ask if he would like to take a shower and he likes to tell Matt and I "I'll take shower tomorrow." and "lets cut toe-nails Tuesday." Already procrastinating.
I keep telling him you can not put off today what needs to be done tomorrow so at least I have that piece of parenting going for me.
We do have a particular and spirited child and I wouldn't trade him for anything BUT I will remind him of these silly fears when he gets older. Some he created on his own and others his mom brainwashed him with...that way he can blame me for whatever issues he might have.
1 comment:
haha... I shouldn't be laughing, but Karly has some of the exact same things going on. I have quite a long story about birds (I will tell you when we see you in June) Soooooo I say it is just their age and not our fault at all =) Who knows ?!? Loved reading this post but Kar wanted to watch the video a ton and every time u would say "scared", she would jump into my lap =) LOVE U GUYS... tell Mason that Karly wants to come play w him and those dinosaurs in the closet =)
Post a Comment