Self-Discipline

Sigh...

Yesterday, H got up when I was still furiously working, due to the idiocy of the clients at Happy Workland, so I scooped her up and brought her downstairs and asked her, cause of course I expected a 17.5 month old to comply...can mama finish two more idiotic emails?! She looked at me all indignant, of course, but then the kitchen timer caught her eye...I had made her spiced apple bread while she was sleeping (my sanity saver from this work project), and it was still in the oven.

Now, I admit, I believe in discipline from the first day. We wouldn't let H put her feet on the table in China (really the only thing she challened us on), and we're still working on that. She stopped for about 4 months, but it's back. Anyways, I digress. So, she does get timeouts. For big stuff, like clocking me with a block, throwing at the cats etc. And it's only a minute - minute and a half for the Baby-Hitler stuff. I take the timer (yeah, do you see where this is going?!), and her and I sit next to each other on the bottom stair, quietly, no smacking walls etc, though there are sometimes hideous wails of indignity of course...

So yesterday, I hand her the timer, which she has never held, praying for the ability to do these last emails. I showed her how it had 4 and a half minutes left till yummys were ready. She looked at me quizically, grabbed the timer, and darted off to the front of the house.

I jumped up, sighed about my emails and ran after her. I shouldn't have worried. She was on the bottom step, sitting quietly, with the timer in her hands, quietly tapping her feet like she does, watching it count down.

It's sad when you suspect already that your kid will be quite a bit smarter than you in less than a year. And she knew she wasn't in time out, cause as soon as I looked at her and said "no, no, no" like I do for one of her books that has that line in it, she peeled out laughing.

Side note: If my mother, who remembers nothing I tell her, asks me one more time if H is injured from the baby formula (how did she remember me saying we had to use Sanlu cause the one she came with wasn't available...7 months ago?!), I'm going to scream. There's babies to worry about, mine isn't one of them. I hope these people are dealt with as severely as the Chinese system is known for...this tainting practice and the support it has in China is a danger to too many. These people need to be made an example of. My gawd...my daughter has more self-control than the people who thought this was ok.