Time Out

Who took our sweet Reese and replaced her with a little girl who throws 100 tantrums per day and constantly tests our limits?  Ugh!   I'm guessing some of this has to do with the fact that the novelty of Emmy has worn off, and she wants her mommy back to herself. But some of it is just the fact she's 3 years old.

I read about a couple different discipline techniques.  First I tried just giving Reese options for everything.  For example, do you want to brush your teeth or have Mommy brush?, Do you want to come eat dinner or go to bed hungry?  That worked sometimes, but she quickly started answering my questions with, "Neither, Mom."  So, we have now moved to  time-outs.  I explained the concept to Reese one day (while she was calm), and so far, so good.  I have put her in time-out 3 times, and she has put HERSELF in time-out 5 times.  It has only backfired on us once when she would not get dressed one morning, put herself in time-out, and refused to come out of time-out for 15 minutes -- just because she still didn't want to put her clothes on.  Ugh - she sooooo wants to be in control.

Here's a picture of Libby on our time-out mat.  I didn't want to take a picture of Reese during a time-out because I didn't want her to think time-outs are cute/funny.  We decided to go with a time-out mat instead of a chair because I didn't want her flinging herself out of a chair during one of those REALLY FUN tantrums. 

I hope this phase will pass quickly, but many of my friends tell me it gets better.... when they are 4  1/2!