Time Out

Eilish has little patience. She comes by it honestly and neither do Owen and I. If something doesn't go her way, let's say a puzzle or something chances are she's going to throw that sucker and yell while doing it. Saturday night we were in the basement and she was playing with a toy car that Owen has (side note: why does Owen have a toy car? He is not a car guy.) and when she couldn't get the hood up, she tossed it across the room.

As all my parenting tips come from TV, I employed a Super Nanny tactic of putting Eilish is 'time out'. I sat her on the arm chair, told her that she shouldn't throw things, how Mommy and Daddy don't throw things (we just curse under our breath) and that she had to sit in the chair for a few minutes until she calmed down. I told her, 'don't move' and perhaps, perhaps pointed my finger while I said it. As I was explaining all this to her, she looked me in the eyes, pointed her finger and said, 'don't move'. I turned away from her to laugh my ass off and reboot the computer and when I turned back to see how the time out was going she pointed her finger at me and said, 'don't move'. That chair has now been christened the 'don't move' chair and everytime she sits in it she points her finger and says 'don't move'.

I don't know if the time out worked. The TV was on so basically she was sitting in her chair watching Toopy & Binoo but she didn't throw anything else….that night. Sunday was a different story.

Here is an outtake from the great Christmas card photo shoot of 2008. This is pretty much how she looks at me when I try to explain the concept of time out.