week ending apr 6, 2008:

We went to see Daddy's office, and to see the Cherry Blossoms in DC this week.

I’m trying a social experiment. I was looking for a travel guide in the library when a book called “From Difficult to Delightful in 30 days. Improving the Behavior of your Spirited Child” practically jumped off the shelf at me. I’ve been complaining a lot lately about Chloe’s “fluid” interpretation of the rules and about her hitting, poking, scratching and otherwise torturing her brother, so I figured I’d give it a read even though I wouldn’t classify Chloe as “difficult”. I’m very skeptical and find that 2 books on the same subject usually directly contradict each other, but on the other hand, it never hurts to get some ideas. The first 4 chapters were the authors vehement rantings against Ritalin (which I’m not even considering), and against Freudian child psychology which he claims tells parents to give children more love and attention when children are misbehaving (the author claims doing so provides positive reinforcement for negative behavior). I was about to give up on the book when the author finally said that the first step in achieving good behavior is to make a list of your child’s good behavior and to compliment the child on said behavior. Well, that just makes sense, and perhaps I’ve slipped in my duties as parental cheerleader lately. I was relieved that the first step wasn’t more rules, more time outs, or more punishments, all of which is exactly what is not working for us right now, so I was willing to give it a shot. I noticed right away that Chloe really beams when given a compliment, and after a few days she seemed generally less resentful.

We bought a new chainsaw this week and Alex was enthralled. We went to Uncle Brian’s house to pick up some firewood and Uncle Brian has cable TV (we don’t) and Sponge Bob was on (which they aren’t usually allowed to watch), so I told the kids they could watch TV while Casey and I loaded wood. Chloe was very excited about watching, but Alex wanted to help with the wood. He and his Daddy sat on some logs and ate their lunch in the sunshine and then Alex stood close by to watch as Casey opened the chainsaw case, and added oil and gas. Then Alex sat on the steps with his hands over his ears watching intently as Casey struggled to get the saw to start for the first time. It took several minutes to saw through the base of the tree which was cylinder over a foot high and over 2 feet in diameter and Alex watched the whole time, grinning and cheering when Daddy finished the job. After that we rolled or carried the remaining logs into a neat pile and Alex helped with the big ones that had to be rolled. Alex really looks up to his dad and loves to do the things that Daddy does. He must in order to give up Sponge Bob in order to help move firewood!