Oh Man! I Did It
I just did exactly what I warned about in my post about follow through. I handed out a punishment that was hard to follow through with. Noah had gotten in trouble and he was to lose a toy. The first toy I saw was his Dreamlight. It’s a pillow pet that projects stars onto the ceiling. Noah loves his Dreamlight. I didn’t realize how much he loved it until it was taken away. He cried and said he wouldn’t be able to sleep with out it. “I don’t know what to do.” he kept saying. My stomach began to churn. I felt so bad. But, I couldn’t go back on my decision. I tried to explain to him why he lost his Dreamlight (he’ll get it back tomorrow). His father also calmly explained why it was taken away, offering me some backup. I offered to read him his Darth Vader book for bedtime story which seemed to distract him. Now he’s in his room humming along to the music that we play for him to fall asleep to. I can’t wait until morning when I can give his Dreamlight back to him. I guess if I took something away that he didn’t love so much, the lesson wouldn’t have had such an impact. It still broke my heart though.
