It's been a Day

In the interest of proper English and formatting, I don't usually capitalize any but the first word in my title. The word "Day" is meant to have a capital D, because it replaces so many longer cliches. "A long day," "a hard day," a stressful day," or "a trying day." And it has definitely been all of the above.

It started when Jimmy (5 years) woke up and announced he is excited that school is starting again soon. Then he promptly went downstairs and began screaming and dancing and knocking things over in his excess of joy. From there, all the rules went out the window. For those who read my post on the break in routines, I think maybe my boy had a delayed reaction.

The morning was full of reminders to give space, calm down, breathe slowly, don't touch, please stop! Now you'll notice that the positive direction eventually turned to negative phrasing, which I noticed as well. For all you positive disciplinarians out there shaking a finger at me, please note that neither method worked.

The afternoon involved some quiet time (writing lines), and plans for a trip to the library. This is one of Jimmy's favourite outings, so maybe I shouldn't have told him the specifics. We were all bundled up and ready to go, and there was a catastrophe. I forget what it was (they all run together at this point), but it ended in a timeout and a tantrum. So the library was taken off the agenda.

Then I thought, hey, he's been sick and cooped up at home, and hardly eating anything for a week. Fresh air and exercise would work wonders. So as the authority figure, I made the decision we were all going for a walk. I even offered to let him pull his brother in the sled, but that turned into another screaming fit. Long story short, we did go for a short walk, played outside for 45 minutes, and came back in.

The arguments stopped after that, but the focus and attention was nowhere to be seen. After breaking a few more things, hurting himself several times (minor accidents, but highly emotional events), and crying over the smallest thing, I decided to cut my losses and minimalize the damage for the rest of the day. Enter Thomas the Tank Engine.

Now I know that could be considered a reward for negative behaviour, but here's my reasoning. With the exception of midday, Jimmy was not intentionally breaking the rules. He was having a harder time than I was. He could not focus on anything, probably as the result of being sick for so long, and he was apologizing (with tears) all day. I don't want to give the kid a complex, so on Days, I have to decide how much is enough pressure for him. And he was feeling a lot of pressure to be good. And most of it was from himself.

So I did what I hope any parent would do. I gave him a big hug, told him I love him no matter what, and that when mommy gets angry she will get over it. He doesn't need to dwell on his mistakes any more than I do mine. Apologize and move on, hopefully after a lesson or two learned. I will let you know tomorrow if that lesson has been internalized.