I consider it to be one of my greatest rewards of parenting when my children all get along and make up fun games to play. Lately though, we've had a few screaming/ pushing/ hitting matches. I'm sure most of their interactions have been pleasant, but these moments of drama tend to stand out to me. The main contenders have been Lana and Gwyn. I try to quickly put an end to these fights, but I think that despite their appearance (and sounds) of distress, the girls actually like it. For example, Gwyn and Lana both wanted to stand directly in front of the TV as we were watching Sesame Street. No one is allowed to stand there, but this didn't matter. They started pushing and screaming. My first attempts to break it up were verbal, and then I physically moved both girls away from the TV. They both immediately ran back, still screaming, and now starting to hit. I turned off the TV and it had no impact whatsoever. I moved them again and one girl ran back to the TV and waited for her opponent, looking intently over her shoulder as if to say "I'm ready. Are you coming?" I finally put both of them in the penalty box, at which point they both finally snapped out of it.
There are also times when I can be the Mommy of only one child. This means that no one else is allowed to sit on me, sit beside me, be held by me, or look at me. If any of these incursions occur, immediate screaming and pushing result. Sometimes I just want to run away!
I'm guessing that there are normal struggles for dominance among triplets, but nothing wears on me more than my children fighting and screaming. I suppose this will all get sorted out eventually. In the mean time, should I buy a whistle and a referee shirt, and maybe some boxing gloves for the girls? Maybe some earplugs would be a better idea.
On a brighter note, today Everett and I were playing around, and I said, "You're going down, punk!" Everett said, "No, you're going down!"
Maddie came up to me and said, ever so sweetly: "You going down, Mama."
I asked her where I was going.
She thought for a second and said: "Down to the park."
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Let's Fight!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The whole mommy to ONLY one child... or else, thing happens here too. THose are some long days. They do say the funniest things at times though, don't they?
I too hate it when my children fight, especially when they get violent. Something new that I am trying is instead of coming over and asking what happened and trying to fix it. I stop them and ask, "What could you have done differently."
My two girls are older, but this way I hope that I am helping them learn how to get along, and learn to solve their own disagreements without me and to use their imaginations on how they can solve problems, but when there is hitting and kicking, I always step in and stop it; sending them to time out or whatever. After that I talk to the child and have him/her tell me three was they could have acted differently.
For me, this gives me time to calm down, allows them to understand what they did wrong and all the things they could have done right. As I said before this is something knew I have learned and am trying in implement it in my family. We will see how it will work. Wish me luck!
Post a Comment