Monday, April 27, 2009

This Is Helpful How?

The other night I awoke to the wee hours o' the night hollerings of our resident 4-year-old who we'll call "Eli." This particular Eli was in a bad way. Judging from the intensity of his caterwauling, I figured one of his legs had plumb fell off. Or maybe he had gone and somehow in his sleep broken like 10 of his fingers. Not quite. I was told later that he had to go wee-wee and one of his older brothers had attempted to take him to the bathroom, which beats going all over his bed. At least in my eyes. Eli didn't see it that way. By his estimation, it was better to throw a fit. Maybe wake up the whole family in the process.

I just don't get this. Why not just get up, take a whiz, go back to bed and no one gets hurt, let alone awakened? Instead it turned into about a half-hour of "discipline" that included some quality time in the garage, encouragement to just say he was sorry and move on by going back to sleep ... it all sounds so simple. But kids are not simple. I just thought I'd share that with you all. In case you didn't know. Eventually we were successful in getting Eli to see the error of his ways and he apologized, made amends, got some love and we all slept happily ever after ... or at least for a couple of hours until Olivia woke up.

2 comments:

  1. Matt, I wish it was just kids who did hat kind of stuff. This morning I woke up late and instead of just doing what I needed in the time I had I instead decided to be a grouch and bring everyone else's day down with me. Something about misery and company I guess...

    ReplyDelete
  2. You might note to Eli that when he gets to be my age if he pitches a fit every time he gets up to pee he'll be sleeping in the garage.

    ReplyDelete