Well, it's official:
Time in's are out and time out's are in. (Did that make sense?)
Wednesday was not a good day. We had several temper tantrums and it seems that the more we held him, the more frustrated and desperate he became. In truth, if I were mad about something, the last thing I would want we be pinned down by someone 10x as big as me.
Because we feel the attachment thing is going so well, we opted for a time out approach yesterday. (Sitting him on a chair and walking away). We still remain within view of Zac, so he knows we haven't left him. This went 1,000 times better yesterday. He truly wants are attention and approval. Therefore, time outs are something that he responds to very well.
We'll keep perfecting the art of our parenting, but we feel like yesterday was a break through day.
Before he was about 95% great child and 5% scary tantrum boy. Yesterday, I'd say he was 99% great child and 1% normal tantrum boy. Much much better.
4 comments:
Dear Ryan and Katie,
Julie shared this site with me so I could meet Zac. She kept saying he is so adorable, and she is right!And what a blessed little boy he is to join your precious family. Love to you all, Jane Kots
Time outs work better for us too. Sam's fits have gotten significantly shorter and fewer.
YEA!!! I am so happy to hear this! As know know, Owen responds better to time out too. :)
Don't feel bad if you have to keep trying and tweaking . . . we "time out" Kristina too most of the time--just stay in the same room as her, but ignore her. She sees us, but doesn't get to make eye contact with us till her time is up. We do "time her in" occasionally if she is reasonable enough we can talk to her.
Kristina also "cycles" as we call it--she will do better for awhile and then revert back to aLot of really crummy behaviors, and then after awhile, be back to sweetness, and we sigh a huge sigh and think we are finally really getting smart at this thing, and then she cycles right off the edge again into horribleness and every day for awhile is a huge battle-field with her. So just a head's up, just in case you meet up with that.
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