Tiger Mom?

Before Sabine was born, I never had to deal with a tantrum. Anissa was such a quiet child. She would sit still and never fuss. The tantrum experience was alien to me until Sabine came along. No, she's not a brat. She's spoiled, but not spoiled rotten. But between my girls, she's the feisty one. She's the one who, at this very young age of 5, reasons out and asks questions. She has difficulty taking "no" for an answer, whereas Anissa would stop at two attempts to change my mind and then just march off to her room and sulk.

For the first time in a while, Sabine had a mild tantrum yesterday. She was acting bratty towards her Yaya, who merely told her to wait a few minutes while she folded the laundry, before they could resume playing. She resented being reprimanded for acting bratty and decided to take it to the next level by scattering our throw pillows on the living room floor. When I gave her the "stare", she stared back. Is feisty an understatement?

Much to my disappointment, I had to resort to pulling rank. I told her to march upstairs to the master's bedroom so she could go into a timeout. She started to cry, perhaps in an attempt to make me reconsider. Although very difficult, I had to resist the urge to give in. I was determined to make her see the error of her ways.

She sat here for the next 20 minutes or so while I watched her. Like any parent, I was so close to picking her up and forgetting all about punishing her because she was sobbing intensely. But needless to say, I had to do the right thing. Anyway, I did pick her up eventually because she was starting to fall asleep. By this time, I just felt really sorry for her and put her on the bed beside me to continue her nap (while still sobbing boo hoo!).

Corporal punishment is now being discussed here. It's ridiculous if you ask me. While I feel that there's no place for child abuse in any decent home, I think corporal punishment is a bit too much to consider. I am not a spanker. Not to say that I haven't spanked my children at all, because I have, in extreme situations. But these occasions are very rare and I drowned in guilt each time. I vowed to never make it a habit.

Disciplining our kids is perhaps the toughest part of parenting. I hate it, but someone has to do it. My motto? Hate me now, thank me later. So far, I think it's working.