I guess it's like gaining weight

Like gaining weight in that you don't realize you are doing it pound by pound until you see the consequences: paints won't button, underware lines show in the trunk, cheeks look a little poofy, feel a little tired walking up that "hill".

What is it? Disciplining your children. When they are young it seems like a daily/hourly chore to stay on top of your child's behavior. They are so (well, mine rather) me focused that you constantly are guiding them to share, apologize, not hit, say thank you. But when they get to that age...you know what that age is...I guess it is different for everyone...you realize "oh, it's been awhile since I had to correct little sammy" or "wow I haven't had to whip out the old tree branch in awhile" (ha ha ha --- had to put that).

I think along the lines of gaining weight slowly you also get used to certain things your children creep back into doing. You get lazy; they get smart or sly or maybe just persistent; you get distracted; they find new ways of doing the same thing. And then one day you realize Little Sammy has not been doing what I ask the first time (or second or third) in quite awhile. Actually, L.S. has been making these horrable whining noises along with rolling his eyes & putting a weird sarcastic tone to all his answers...and I have been in some zombie zone the whole time!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH...CRACK DOWN! And then excuse my language but all hell brakes loose. The child who has learned that his parents had become zombies to his ill behavior now is having to step up and he doesn't like it. And at that point you have a choice. Do I go back to the numbing sensation of letting my child whine and having to tell him 10 times to do something or do I make a choice now to correct what is wrong and plow back to the straight and narrow road we once were on?

We went through all this last week. Dear sweet Eli who most everyone sees as a very well behaved child (never gets in trouble at school - he would die! well unless that old Chase or Eli CR tempt him...HAR HAR HAR), mostly polite to adults even when he turns his back to them and looks at me with those eyes like he could burn a hole through me telling me what he really thinks of the situation, can be at times the most strong willed child I've ever seen. And of course it is over the stupidest things ever.

The good part to all this is I have heard other moms say their 8 year old has carried on the same way lately. Crying uncontrollably over the silliest requests from his parents, refusing to do something so easy, being an emotional basketcase, yelling at his parents out of anger. It is truly the sadest thing to go through to realize you have to be the bad guy for awhile to get your child straightened out again. When they tell you that you are mean. When they don't want you to touch them (hug, sitting beside, etc.) when they look at you like they hate you.

But then after a few hours things settle down. Of course when it happends again the true test occurs. Do you go through that hour long disciplining snafu where you are the bad guy, sweating, making quick on the spot decisions about how to handle each curve ball of terror your child throws out at you, going into over time holding your ground, not wavering, not letting them see you falter until they finally cave in and do what was told or apologize to you (or brother) or whatever the problem at hand may be.

So, we continue our voyage down discipline road. It has been a hard week with sweet Eli but Nate and I are determined to work as a team and stick this out. Schools starting back; he is walking the straight and narrow for seven hours each day so I'm sure he's about ready to lose it when he gets home. I'll try to be more patient with my little emotional 2nd grader - BUT I WON'T GO BACK TO THE ZOMBIE ZONE!