Yesterday, Gracie BIT Bradley TWICE. My less-than-a-month-from-turning-8 daughter thought biting was the answer. I'm embarassed. I'm obviously failing her.
At first, I did a superb job of controlling my temper. I spoke calmly instead of yelling. I explained to her why it is completely unacceptable for her to bite her brother. Then I told her that the next time she bites, I will wash out her mouth with soap. I remember my mom washing my mouth out with soap as a kid and boy did it leave an impression. I thought maybe this was the answer. But when Gracie heard my threat, she laughed. And kept laughing. So I told her since it was so funny, we could just do it then for the two bites she had already done that day.
If I could go back in time, I would have walked out of her room.
Instead I took her to the bathroom where I washed out her mouth with soap. And at first, the smug little thing was still smiling. Then she was spitting a lot and then saying she felt like she was going to throw up. Thinking she was being overly dramatic as usual, I ignored her and told her to brush her teeth again and go to bed.
Two hours later, Doug and I were about to turn in for the night when I heard coughing sounds from Gracie's room followed by "I just threw up in my bed". Great. Guess I won't be using the soap in the mouth form of discipline anymore since I got punished WAY more than she did. Puke all over the bed. One of her cherished teddies is on it's way to the landfill now (which made my cry last night thinking about it). While in the tub getting cleaned up, she had to hurl again and puked all over the bathroom floor, door, doorjam, toilet (not in it, but on the outside) while trying to get to the toilet from the tub. I barely avoided adding to it while cleaning it up. It was so gross.
So my child who had perfect attendance until today is home with me. And I kept Bradley home too because I didn't want to risk Gracie puking in my car while taking him to or from school. And while I know puking sucks (as the memory is still fresh from when I was pregnant), cleaning it up from all over the house sucks worse.
Note to self: Do not ever wash out a child's mouth again.
(How lucky my mom was that I didn't puke after she did it.)
2 comments:
You don't suck. I remember thinking my Parents were total jerks when they would say that disciplining me was harder on them -- dude, it totally was. Being a parent has rough moments -- especially when you're not getting a lot of sleep.
Even if you elected to, I bet you won't have to wash her mouth out with soap again.
What a rough day. I hope your week improves. One is a handful; I'm sure three is 10 handfuls. You're doing great.
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