Discipline... Yuck!

Discipline has, by necessity, become a daily part of our lives... and wow! It's hard.

Luke is a real handful as he approaches five years old. He is King of asserting his independence, but even worse he has begun to "needle". For example, he tells Scott all the time that he hates UCLA and loves SC. Sometimes when he is getting dressed in the morning he moans about how he NEEDS an SC shirt. But worse, when he is mad at Scott, he YELLS, "I love SC Daddy! I. HATE. UCLA.!!!!"

Recently I put him in time out for some disobedient action, and he is in his room screaming, "I'm going to DESTROY YOUR WEDDING RING!!!!!" His attempt at going straight for the jugular.

He's so sassy. "No!" "I WON'T" and "NEVER" are seemingly his favorite words, and the growl is his noise of choice. Recently I told him he was going to have his mouth washed out with soap if he kept up the sass, and he marched himself into the bathroom, pumped the soap in his mouth two times, winced for a minute, rinsed. And then said, "THERE! I washed my mouth out with soap!" Oh. My. God.

I have had to pull over the car at least twice in the last week. And we are spanking when we need to. And of course we're trying rewards, time outs, and all those other measures. You have to do it, but you walk the fine line of being either a bully or a pushover. In the moment, I struggle not to be angry and reactive, yet secretly I am also always rooting for Luke, proud of his strong will, his independence, and his intelligence.

Nothing will change the course of discipline and behavior in our house but consistency and time. And hopefully Kindergarten. Still, discipline is hard...Yuck.