A parenting breakthrough

On Thursday I had a very wonderful mommy moment.

Beth kept sitting on the dishwasher door while I was loading the dishwasher. She was driving me nuts- no amount of redirection would keep her away from sitting on it and looking at me with her big eyes to see how I'd react! After several rounds of, "No, don't sit on that," I dragged her over to her kid-sized rocking chair and asked her to sit there until she could control herself. She sat there looking at me like, huh? But I needed a second to think it though, trying to think of a natural consequence or a way to get through to her. Then it hit me. I asked her to come into the kitchen and stand by me, I crouched down and we pointed out all the chairs in the room- the table chairs, her high chair, Luke's bouncy chair, a stool she uses to sit on, and the floor. I asked her if the dishwasher was a chair and she said yes, so we pointed out all the chairs in the room again and then I asked her again if the dishwasher was a chair. She said no, we cheered, and she walked away and let me finish doing the dishes without trying to sit on the dishwasher again! I was so happy. I have such a hard time thinking up natural consequences! This wasn't a consequence though- I just forgot how much this little girl loves to learn. So we made it into a learning opportunity and she got it. I feel like this has been a huge breakthrough for me! Since Ryan and I choose not to spank Beth, there are times when I feel at a loss of how to teach her right from wrong actions.

It's a great feeling when parenting starts to make sense!