After a hard day of mothering children who were refusing to conform to my will, I got out a few of my favorite parenting books. Skimming the pages, I vowed to do things differently, better, more consistently. My consistency flies out the window to a large extent when I’m pregnant. I’m tired. I’m sore. I don’t feel like it.
Feeling encouraged, I determined it was starting with bedtime. Five of my children march off to bed and go to sleep without issue.
One, not so much.
I bet you can guess which one.
So I give the dear boy a stern talking to, march him off to bed with a warning, and minutes later, hear from him again. After a brief conversation, he’s back in bed. All is quiet.
Wow! I should have done that a long time ago! That was too easy. Half an hour passes – silence.
And then. He got up. And got up. And got up. And got up. And it was 10pm, two hours past the time I’d laid him down, and I was losing my patience. I put him in my bed instead of his, shut the door, and went back to my relaxing. And he got up. And up. And he begged for his own bed. Really? One stern talking to later, I tucked him into his own bed, and didn’t hear from him until… the wee hours of the morning when he apparently bumped his head on something. And so he sleeps… in my bed.
I’m determined. I’ll persist. But after all of that… I’m starting to understand why I’ve often giving up fighting the fight as consistently as I ought. I. Am. Exhausted.
Pierce: 1. Momma: 0. For today.
With all of his ‘stubborn’ tenacity, he should go far in life, hopefully. At least you tried – it’s hard to win against all of that willfulness.