Defiant Phase

These past few days have been challenging. The hitting phase has begun. Well, worse. She has learned how to scratch, use her legs to kick me, or other people, uses her fists to punch. It is a development, exploring how far her fists can go, how strong her kicks are, and how painful can her scratch get. It depends on the victim-me! haha.. I was super calm when she first did those to me. Just, "Simone, that's painful. It's not nice." She would apologize, but would do it again, over and over. There was a time she did it non-stop, no matter what I do. So I asked, "You want mommy to do it to you?". She still continued. I just gave her a small dose, just to let her feel how unpleasant it is. She stopped and cried.I explained to her, "It is painful right? That's how mommy feels when you do that. So are you going to stop already?" She nodded and apologized. Other positive guidance words like, "Hands are for helping, feet are for walking, jumping, etcetera." I tried testing her on how she would react if I say it's painful, or completely ignore her, then she would stop. Well, if I say painful, more or less she will continue, and if i ignore her, she would do more and more!

Ha! It doesn't stop there. Again and again. It's starting to wear me out. Next, I taught her to stomp her feet instead of physically attacking people when she is mad. She felt better with stomping,but would forget and starts hitting again. I guess she couldn't control her emotions, obviously. Distracting her will do, for a while only. The statement, "Simone, I understand that you are frustrated and upset, but you don't need to hit" is a broken record already. Believe me when I say that I don't hit back when she does it to me. I'm more of a I-understand-you-are-upset-mom and let her frustrations out first, but sometimes, I feel like throwing her on the bed LOL that is a joke in my head alright?

So, I wonder where she learned it from? Never mind, I will always go back to my book, The No Drama Discipline. Thank God I have that book to guide me. Parenting is a life long learning! I'm thankful I'm studying Early Childhood now, it really helps me sooo much. And this, blogging. Helps me pour out my struggling emotions! Simone, kalma lang! And me- "konting-konti na lang!"

xx,
chicmomandbaby