Monday, May 5, 2008

Requesting help from veteran moms!

We had an interesting situation arise here earlier this morning - one of our daughter's dress-up skirts was cut, and both kids said the other one did it. Obviously, one of them was lying (yes, I am a master of the obvious! :) so I didn't want to get carried away with punishing the innocent one. So how would you handle this?

What I did: both kids went to time out, both continuing to proclaim the others' guilt. I spoke with each of them separately, reminding them that lying is wrong and makes God sad. They both sat and occasionally tried to convince me that it was other one - I told them I didn't want to hear anything until one of them was ready to say, "I did it." After about 15 minutes, the fuzzball 'fessed up (which I had suspected, as the cuts were awfully jagged for her skilled bro to have done it). I had her apologize to her brother for getting him in trouble, and then he got to choose one of her toys to become "his" for the day, plus she was then disciplined for both cutting and lying about it.

I know this is only going to get harder. Too bad I don't have Solomon on speed dial...

5 comments:

Ivymamma said...

way to go, mom!!! We had a similar situation, only neither boy ever fessed up. the stories just kept getting more and more elaborate. We finally just took away something for several days from both.

Youthleadergina said...

I here ya! We need Solomon help here too!
Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Anonymous said...

No help here...but isn't that BURPY Fuzzball to you?! He he he

MaryLu said...

I think you did the right thing, I never even seem to get to the confession. There is often too much going on here that we just move on to the next crisis.
Keep at 'em, Mom, they'll get it!

In Pursuit of His Call said...

Sounds like the Lord blessed you with much wisdom! Way to go!

You're the veteran mom I'll need to seek advice from as the girls get older. Little C is still so innocent right now that Little G can get away with a lot of injustice towards her little sister.