Nooooo...my kids don't have tantrums! Do yours?

It all started TWO DAYS ago...Saturday night when, after relentless begging and pleading, I caved and took McKenzie, Monson, Lexie & Izzie to "the movie in the park after dark"....Matilda. I quite enjoyed shoveling popcorn and Nutter-Butters in my mouth, the brisk air, and cuddling with the kids, but after dark is apparently too late for Lexie & Izzie, especially with 8:30 am church the next morning. A bunch of little grumpy-pants' is what I got from being a nice mom. I knew better! What was I thinking?

Sunday after church the little girls CRASHED on the sofa and because I was so busy runnin' about organizing and doing my thing, I didn't realize that they'd been snoozing for 3 hours! These little ones don't take naps anymore--I knew I was in BIG trouble.

Sunday night when I finally went to bed at 11:30 pm, Izzie just couldn't settle down or be obedient and stay in her bed. She was drawing pictures...for ME...and had to show me every 5 minutes what she had come up with. I couldn't see with my eyes closed...afterall, I was trying to sleep. So I mumbled to her a compliment about her creations that I could not and did not try to even see each time she returned. ( She even knows how to write in Arabic and look how better her hand tracings got each time, fingernails and all). Demanding, pleading, begging, and bribing her to just go to bed just hadn't worked the past THREE hours of trying. I can guilt Lexie into anything, and overall she's just more of a CTR kind of gal, but Izzie...not so much. She's her own person and when she makes up her mind she's going to do something, no one is gonna change it for her. I think she finally settled down by 12:30 am.

This all leads me to the events of today. Tired, stressed mommie and exhausted, defiant, stubborn, three-year-old Izzie. Not a good combination. She was throwing another tantrum; I'm sure this was like # 8 of the morning. NOTHING was right in her world when she woke up. I don't even know what it was about anymore.

All I know is that I was on the phone trying to deal with multiple insurance issues and outrageous hospital and physician bills that were incorrect. It had already taken me 20 minutes of hold-time to get through...I was NOT putting that phone down! I had left the girls in their rooms to dig themselves out from under their PILES of stuff everywhere...you know, the 'clean before the cleaning lady comes' day. Love that day.

'Time-out' only works for Izzie in one place. She HATES this place. I send her to time-out in the downstairs guest shower...and depending on how naughty she's being or how loud she's screaming, sometimes I close the shower curtain and the door to the bath, then the door to the bedroom. Today she got a little surprise she's never had before. Her tantrum was SO bad, SO out-of-control, SO ridiculous, and NOTHING was getting to her, nothing was calming or helping her to reason, so I had to shock her.

I'm here to share what works for three-year-old tantrums. And I know it's most definitely gender-neutral because Monson spent many-a-tantrum in the same spot, different house. Dr. Phil agrees with me about this tantrum-fighting dealio so don't be calling CPS or anything.

I put her in time-out and proceeded to turn on the shower, with her fully clothed. "Mommie, mommie, NOOO! NOOOO! I'll stop, I'll stop, I promise!" I wonder what our neighbors think...heck, I wonder what Glencrest Drive thinks...certainly they could hear her shrills from all corners. I turned off the shower with her screaming, and she lied...she wasn't gonna stop and left her there, in the shower, closed the curtain, LOCKED the bathroom door, closed the bedroom door and continued my phone calls. A couple minutes later a sopping-wet cold Izzie had calmed down and could reason with me--totally different little Izzie was ready to obey and become a normal member of the McLaughlin Clan again.

Tonight when I tucked Izzie into bed at 8:30 pm (ah, much better) she grabbed my face and with a huge grin said, "Mommie that was mean today." We talked about choices & consequences, obedience, choosing the right, etc. and she understood. Then she said, "Mommie, I love you so much, I'm so proud of you!"

Okay....after that??? I'll take it! Guess I need to teach her what "I'm so proud of you" really means. At least something's rubbing off!