Monday, October 20, 2008

Discipline

JJ, like any 3 yr old, pushes our buttons. My buttons are just simpler to get pushed than mummy's. Today, when we came home, he insisted that we'd go ride his bike right away. I wanted us to go into the house for a little break and drink before heading out to the park to play. He kept refusing to come in so I just went into the house knowing full well that he'd folllow me. Well, he did. But not without the usual busting out in big tears episode. He is gradually learning to become a 1st time listener but he needs to be reminded once in a while.

He normally behaves well when only 2 of us are around. Even when he fusses around, he will quickly come around once I issue my warnings. The whole thing changes when mummy is home. JJ takes full advantage of mum's presence and fights to the end no matter what. He swithces from an almost perfect kid to an irritating brat in no time. It's amazing to see how well he uses mum to buffer dad so effectively.

Mum keeps saying that it's ok for him to de-stress since he is under more stress when mum is not around. Not sure if this is indeed the case but I guess it's ok to let loose as long as he stays within bounds, which mum does a good job enforcing. It's just that dad's bounds tend to be much tighter.

The important thing is that JJ seems to have adjusted to our new life (mummy being away for work several nights a month) pretty well.

Surprising thoughtfulness

Been such a long time since my last blog. Can't believe I snooze on this one.

JJ is a good balance of kindness, rebellion, maturity and playfulness. His occasional moments of surprising thoughtfulness remind that the we just might be doing an Ok job as parents. These small signs were of course big things in the eyes of parents.

It was one of the evenings where JJ was falling asleep during dinner (no PM nap) and needed to go to bed before I could finish dinner. I put him to bed. As he was resting his head on the pillow in my bed, he looked at me and said "Daddy, please go and eat more dinner then come to bed". He was thinking about my half finished dinner all along.

Tonight was a similar evening but at least I finished my dinner. As you was about to lie down on our bed, he reminded that the TV was still on downstairs. I guess we have a budding environmentalist.