All About the Boy!

Its sometimes hard not to laugh

Logan's becoming better about vocalizing his anger instead of lashing out physically. Until fairly recently, building anger would pull his hands into fist. He'd flex the muscles in his hands a few times - clenching and unclenching - and then he'd try to slap whoever was closest to him. It didn't happen everytime we had to correct his behavior, but it happened often enough.

He's spent time in his room without toys to play with and he's watched a pile of his favorite items end up in the "time-out box" for it. Both forms of discipline encouraged him to find other ways at expressing his preschool rage. And that's good. He's labeling it for what it is and he talks it out instead. The thing is, he's latched onto everything he's ever been told or heard. For example, one day recently when he was acting out I informed him that if he didn't stop he could go to his room for a time-out until he was ready to be nice.

Logan - Mom, I am NOT happy.

Mom - Well, that's two of us Logan. I'm not happy either.

Logan - I am mad! I am mad at you. You are making me very angry.

Mom - Well I'm sorry you feel that way. Frankly, I'm pretty mad too. I don't like that you are acting this way.

Logan - I think YOU need a time-out. You go to your room.

Mom - Logan, you don't give your parents a time-out. We've talked about this before. If you want to keep trying to tell me what to do, Thomas can go into the away-box.

Logan huffed loudly. He crossed his arms over his chest. He glared at me hard and then he said something that nearly broke my "don't smile no matter what" promise:

"That is NOT nice. Mom, you are being disrepuable."

I bit the inside of my cheek, raised one eyebrow at him, and said "I'm being what?"

Logan said it again - Disrepuable. You are being disrepuable.

Mom - Umm, honey, do you mean to say "Disrespectful"?

He stomped his foot and stared at me in somewhat disbelief and total exasperation.

Logan - THAT IS WHAT I SAID! Dis-rep-rah-able. It makes me mad when you be that way!

posted by Sandy at 9:52 PM