That streak was nice while it lasted
We had a good couple of weeks temper wise, and now we’re having what may be more typical 5yo issues as she’s at least starting to calm down. We have not been called for the insanity that’s been Katie Kaboom for almost a month now.
TL;DR – Paul can’t hold a thought this morning.
We haven’t been called in either of the two days that there have been issues, however there’ve been a lot of frowny faces at report time this week. Bad days that turn into worse days have been a hallmark of Katie Kaboom reappearing in the past.
Maggie’s been asking about jail a lot lately. A lot of her classmates talk about it as a fairly regular thing, and considering there’s a DCS lady who drops a couple of the kids off regularly I’m guessing it may be a common topic of conversation.
She’s been struggling to figure out why some of her classmates parents want to go to jail. I’ve tried to use this as a teachable moment.
Nobody wants to go to jail.
Then why are they going there?
Because they want to do things that are illegal.
They want to do those more than they want to be with their kids?
People are stupid sometimes.
Do you get cuddlies in jail?
No cuddlies. It’s not torture but they don’t make it so anyone wants to go back.
Are there soft blankies in jail?
Blankies yes, soft probably not.
Last night she asked me if she was going to go to jail for her behavior, I said probably not, except as a 4yo it included assault twice and a record number of school kickouts that way past where truancy laws kick in. So maybe she should work on that.
We got into another discussion about how I wanted her to learn and be happy and she seemed to want to learn so she could mete out punishments and consequences on other people. I told her that perhaps she should study Skeletor or Cobra Commander as a career path.
I still am struck by how little positive seems to get through to her. I guess I’ve never really had experience with children before this but she remembers all the negative and very little of the positive and that’s a real problem when she keeps making the world negative at school, home, etc.
Me and Kim have split on parenting reading. I’m still working on No Drama Discipline/Whole Brain Child and she’s reading some Oprah book. Currently feeling NDD has some great concepts but is missing the target slightly.
Me and Maggie had a discussion about consequences and punishment and how it’s not particularly a good idea to aim to punish people as a learning goal. I told her while I had had to discipline and punish her in the past that I had no desire to be her jailer.
She stated that jails aren’t fun. I told her that’s the point. She asked about some improvements to the mental jail she’d constructed about perhaps having a bouncy house and better food. I asked if she’d like that, she said yes, I told her that’s why it wouldn’t happen, because then people would be committing crimes to get into her dream jail.
She talked a lot about jail.
