Well. This is all a waste of valuable resources and I will stop subscribing to parenting magazines for the same reason that I will never again subscribe to a newspaper. That reason being that I already know everything. All of the information in the world handily beams itself into my brain (with a brief stop on my laptop screen on the way). Once there I sort it into various compartments. The information gleaned from parenting magazines goes into a compartment which long ago reached critical mass, so I'm ending it.
However, having said that, I have to admit that I've learned at least 2 things by reading these magazines. The first is that cuts and abrasions do not 'need to breathe', that they need to be covered properly with a bandage to heal most quickly and effectively. Please wash your abrasions thoroughly, add some Polysporin or something and then cover that owie up. Don't force your skin to make a scab.
The other important thing that I learned was in last months magazine in a Tips and Tricks section. A mother of 2 boys said that when her boys fight she makes them sit on the couch and hold hands (silently) for two minutes! Wonderful! The punishment for aggression is not further aggression or isolation, it is affection. Does it work? Yes. Very well.
Leif and Laika do not want a two minute hand holding session on the couch. But every once in a while one of them will provoke the other to the point of attack and then someone will smack someone in the belly or the nose and then next thing you know they are listening to a younger, infinitely more innocent Michael Jackson singing 'Ben' and are no longer just holding hands, but are laying on one another wistfully ruminating on the loneliness of a pet rat who feels that he's 'not wanted anywhere'.
Here then, is a photographic image in which I have captured the technique in action.
Sidenote: Laika lost the shirt about an hour prior to the disciplinary event.
1 comment:
I agree about the parenting mags. They always kind of made me feel bad about all the parenting mistakes I was making. So I stopped subscribing and now I feel pretty good. I can also think of something useful I learned from them: it's called the "3 sorry's rule" (we use it all the time around here now). When you do something mean, on accident or on purpose, you must apply the rule: say sorry, feel sorry and show sorry. Show sorry means finding a way to let the person know you feel badly and would try not to do that thing again. This makes for some interesting actions and statements from a 4 year old.
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