You're Going To WHAT???

Zachary gets very expressive when he's mad (big surprise, I know; he's expressive every waking moment). Usually he runs wailing to his room and slams his door, which Eric HATES. Eric always gives Zachary a lecture about the door slamming, but it hasn't been working.

Well, he came up with a brilliant idea the other night. Zachary got mad right before bedtime, ran to his room and slammed his door. Eric went in there and talked to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but when I went in later to tuck Zachary in, I found out what had transpired.

Zach looked up at me and said "Mom, Dad said that if I swam the door again he will take the door off and frow it away! So I'm not going to swam my door anymore, Mom..."

The look in Zach's eyes was one of awe. The tone in his voice was one of wonderment. It was as if what Eric had said was so creative and impressive there was nothing left to do but obey. Like Zach was saying, "I mean, threatening to REMOVE MY DOOR??!!??!!! That gets my attention!". Zach may as well have said, "Wow! Dad was just so amazing! He came out of left field with that one, I was NOT expecting that!".

And it has worked. The last two times Zach has run wailing to his room, Eric and I look at each other in silence, eyebrows raised, waiting for the slam. And both times we heard the tiniest little "click" of a softly closing door.

Lesson learned. To get through to Zachary you have to earn his respect. You have to discipline outside the box. You have to surprise him with creativity. Cliche punishments are laughable.

Maybe next time he doesn't pick up his toys I'll go in and squirt ketchup all over them.



I think Eric scored big respect points from Zachary with this one...