Adventures in Disciplining a Toddler

Verse of the Week:

Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives. Proverbs 19:18

Adventures in Disciplining a Toddler

Tears were streaming down my face for the second time that week. I was having another Mama meltdown. I have always heard of the terrible twos, but I didn't think that it was that terrible. NIGHTMARE seemed like the better description. I had just spent part of the day disciplining, disciplining, and disciplining! I was saying things similar to this,   "Do not push the buttons on the dishwasher, do not pull down the blinds, don't put the plastic flute down the drain, do not stand on the chair, kleenex is to actually stay in the box, and for the fifty gazillionth time, do not take the dvds out of the tv stand!"    After barking out orders, Brayden looks at me with his mischevious grin, and does it anyway. Lets just say the grin doesn't last long after Sergeant Mama administers her consequences. Then five minutes later he would go after it again. To top it off, there seemed to be a temper tantrum around every corner.  Would the day ever end? 

You know you are raising a toddler when....
1. Everything must be touched.
2. They smile at the word no
3. You sound like a broken record when trying to get them to do something
4. Their scream stops everyone but you mid way in their tracks
5. Their cuteness keeps you from throwing them across the room

Thank goodness these days are not everyday, but when they come, I begin to wonder where I went wrong with my boy, and begin to have a pity party for the next hour! I start to wonder if the disciplining is even worth it, but according to Proverbs 19:18, it is SO WORTH IT! King Solomon wrote, "Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives." I discipline Brayden because I want to prepare him for the future. I want him to know how to display proper behavior in kindergarden, how to share, how to listen to authority, and how to manage his emotions. Ultimately, I want him to grow up to be a blessing to society and to be a light for Jesus. I discipline him because I love him. I hate the process of disciplining, because I have never liked conflict, but I do it because I love Brayden. 

Even though I have those days where I feel like disciplining is getting no where, it is the good days that I receive renewed hope that it is all worth it. Days when I see Brayden asking me permission to go someplace or touch something; days when I see Brayden putting the kleneex back in the box because he knows they aren't supposed to be out; days when I see him reaching for the blinds and dvds, but decides not to touch them; and days when he wants to get upset but controls his emotions are what encourages me to stay strong and keep trying. Don't give up parents! Keep disciplining because you love your children and you want what is best for them. 

Train a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6