Discipline

Our mom's bible study group is doing a discipline study. We are reading and discussing Dr. Dobson's "The New Dare to Discipline." I love meeting with these amazing women every week. This study feels timely to me, as boy do I need some guidance. I'm very proud of my kiddos. They are generally sweet, polite, caring children. They are kind to others, and help me out around the house. However, like all parents, we have moments of challenge. Samuel, in his terrible twos, occasionally (and most often publicly) throws his whole body onto the floor and screams if something he doesn't like happens. And Grace....

Yesteday was one of those challenging mornings with my sweet girl. Too bad we're only on Chapter 3 of our study :). It was Sunday. We got up, made pancakes, planned to go to 9:15 church. I got Samuel's clothes ironed and ready, then onto Grace. I've learned lately that the little fashionista does pretty well with choices. Left to her own devices, she would wear her favorite shimmery silver sparkle dress (consignment shop find), white tights and black patent leather shoes, and pink tiara, EVERYWHERE. So, I try to lay out 2-3 choices and let her pick from those. Works pretty well most of the time.

Yesterday, I had out 2 dresses to choose from for church, she picks one, all is well with the world....until we get to the shoes. She's on a kick (no pun intended) that her shoes HAVE to match her clothes. Even though it is May, yesterday was a cold 40° rainy and ick morning.  We were in a full out battle over flip flops.  Me, "no, you cannot wear green flip flops to church, even if they do have a fancy sparkle in the middle, it's just too cold" Grace, "BUT THE WHITE ONES DON'T MATCH (cry hysterically)." Me, "my sweet darling girl, here are 3 pairs of closed shoes, you can pick any of them to wear, but you can't wear flip flops to church in 40° weather." Grace, "BUT THESE AREN'T GREEEEEEEEN (more hysterical crying)." Imagine back and forth about 10 times, literally down to minutes before we need to leave for church, and I'm still in my bathrobe.

Finally I throw up my hands, "I'm done, you can wear one of my choices or go without any shoes today" and I leave the room. I find Tommy shaving, and demand that he take care of his daughter since I'm done fighting. I let him know her choices are mine or nothing, and I quickly head off to get myself ready. About 5 minutes later I hear Grace marching down the hall (in the proper shoes I picked out) with her dad, and I hear very distinctly, "Daddy, isn't Mommy Lazy today. We're all ready to leave for church, and she's not even dressed yet." Ha! Lazy, my child, is not the word I had in mind.

Fast forward about 7 hours. We're getting ready for Alicia's graduation party (congrats Alicia). Tommy is at Pointfest the heavy metal all-day concert, so the kids and I have been just hanging out in our sweats. Grace wanted to put on a dress again. Fine, no problem. She heads to her room, and comes back fully decked out. Adorable Matilda Jane dress, only problem is she has perfectly matching wide ruffle pants underneath. I do love this look, but today it was a head-to-toe-in-your-face-exact-same floral pattern. Not a big deal, but I kindly suggested that maybe we wear the pants with a top, or the dress with tights, but that both together was maybe a little much. She ponders this for a minute. Looks down and says, very seriously, "Mommy, no one will throw me out with the trash for wearing this outfit."

I truly couldn't disagree with that reasoning, so off we went the way she was.

...and don't worry, the shoes matched perfectly.