Rebellious Miss Perfect

I still exercise the time-out routine with Sienna when she plunges herself into a tantrum, the very opposite role of an angel.

One day, after a time-out in her room, she started to comment, "Mommy, you locked me up today, I am gonna to lock you up tomorrow!" Wow, I really like that kind of rebellious spirit in her! It's like a little imperfection that makes my Miss Perfect even more perfect and real. So in response, I said, "Sienna, if you see mommy starts throwing things around when I am mad, like you did today, you can lock me up. If you are too small to do that, ask anyone to help you."

Well, that's not something I will need to make an effort to give up. I would never be driven by her to a point of throwing a trantrum of my own. With this child of mine, even raising my voice would be big offence. I remember when she was around 2 and half. One evening, during the bed time routine, I raised my voice, "BAOBAO, time is up, go to bed!" She followed my instruction, not with complete willingness. 15 minutes later, she was in bed. Suddenly she turned to me, "Mommy, I am not happy." "Why is that?" I asked. "You were too loud. You were like this, 'BAOBAO...' Don't do that again, Ok!" "But, hey, you didn't hear me..." Not a perfect excuse anyways. She was wrong not listening. I was not right for being so loud.