Add it to the List

I'm talking about that list of ridiculous things parents do when they're irritated, tired, annoyed, frustrated, etc. with one of their children. My favorite example comes from an unnamed friend who, upon tiring of their toddler NOT sleeping or staying in their crib in the middle of the night, blearily brought said child to the living room, sat him on the floor, and turned the pack & play upsidedown on top of him. To keep him contained. Makes me laugh everytime. The behavior I'm adding to this list today isn't quite as logical, but still, I did it and I'm admitting to it.

During naptime the other day, I was interrupted by a little person that obviously hadn't been to sleep yet and had climbed out of his crib and come downstairs to see me. This being the first time he's done this, I kindly explained that it's naptime and carried him back up to his bed. Naturally, he started whining and fussing after I laid him down, so I did what any good parent does in this situation: I said nap-nap, ignored the whining, and shut the door. Moments later, I was downstairs, still listening to this little person who's whine had now evolved into a monotone cry. The relentless kind. Grrr, I thought. I'm not going back up there, that's what he wants. But what to do to get him to stop? Grumble. As the monotone cry begin to raise in decible, my irritation raised as well, so what did I, with a college degree, decide to do?

I threw a stuffed animal at the ceiling to make a thump.

The fact that the stuffed animal was a gloworm (stuffed with more than stuffing) meant it made a louder thump than I'd planned on.

You may ask, if throwing a gloworm to thump the ceiling is a good method for quieting a whining child? Well, no. I'm pretty sure I knew that when I threw the gloworm at the ceiling, but in my 14-year old moment, I did it anyway.

So what did I get from my idiotic method? Well, it startled my 2-yr old into crying louder and woke up my 10-month old. I probably deserved that. On the other hand, my 2-yr old remembered he was tired and fell asleep within 2 minutes. Rationalization? You bet. Embarrassing all the same? Oh yeah.