Thursday, May 08, 2008

crime and punishment

I was in Target yesterday picking up a prescription with Ruby while Dellah was at school. This mom in an aisle near me was having a hard time with a screaming kid and she said, "if you do that again, I will wash your mouth out with soap".

I have prayed and fasted and plead with Heaven to help me know what to do to make some kind of impact on my children. They simply don't care about words or tone of voice or loss of toys or time out or silent treatments.

as a totally out of answers to my own life mother, I, personally felt as if Heaven had opened and I had heard a voice of great wisdom speak to my mind....

That's it! Harmless and yet, effective physical punishment.

Yesterday Dellah screamed her out of control scream for the 100th time and I said, that's it...jabon en la boca....I took her to the sink, put a dab of my non-paraban, method soap on my finger and stuck it on her tongue. Silence.
Today I used a one and a two and a three for bad deeds and on the third there was going to be soap.
Dellah 0
Ruby 3
Tomorrow I hope Ruby can remember what it tastes like to have soap in her mouth and respond accordingly.

I'm so happy!

Call family services, I don't even care. This is the best thing that's happened in many, many months here in my household.
some order
some control
some discipline if you will for completely defiant kids who just look at me while they do what they're not supposed to do.
finally a win for my side.
Tomorrow it probably won't work at all but yesterday and today were enough to boost my sense of parental-ness

6 comments:

JenW said...

amen to that. i wonder if that would work with ethan...i'm on the edge of ready to try anything:)

erin T to the S said...

it can't hurt to try. It's definitely hard to forget for future disciplining.

Cindy Bean said...

Or your child could acquire a taste for soap. I wonder if that would work for boys.

andi said...

It works for Xan. Just two days ago he was in the throws of a major sugar melt down, spewing "I hate you, mom. HEAVENLY FATHER MADE YOU OUT OF CHICKEN POOP!"

I simply said that those words are dirty and now I have to wash his tongue off so the naughty words can be cleaned away. Works every time. Sometimes I just use super organic lavender lotion and I find it just as affective and much easier to carry with me at all times than liquid soap.

I find it best if I don't freak out at all and just blame the dirty words/voice for the soap.

You go, girl!

Baker said...

My dearest Erin! I have just found your blog and I am loving it! You are beautiful and amazing. Don't doubt that even for a moment! I can't believe how long it's been. I would love to reconnect. Your girls are precious! And the soap...no judgment here!

thechoulespauls said...

soap i love it! kids are so hard- i'm not looking forward to starting the time outs again. of course i still do the 1-2-3 in silence with my fingers with my 10 yr old...