Talking Back

Just want to document this. Faelyn has been doing this for months, but I didn't realize that I hadn't told a single person (including my husband) about it and that nobody has ever seen her do it.

Now when you think of a child Maddox or Faye's age (2-6 years old) talking back, you think of sassy, maybe? You think of them getting smart with you, shooting back clever remarks when you're talking to them about something they've done wrong... Here's an example of what my 2.5 year old daughter does.

Faye: Climbing onto the top of the kitchen table.
Mom: Standing behind the kitchen counter getting lunch ready.
Mom: Faelyn, please get off of the table.
Faye: please get off of the table.
Mom: Faelyn, get down off of the table.
Faye: get down off of the table.
Mom: 1
Faye: 1
Mom: 2
Faye: 2 (almost in complete unison with me)

Of course then we move to me just going over and getting her and putting her into a time out.

Time outs are supposed to be breaks for kids to regroup themselves and to think about what happened. For Faye, I just do not know what to do with the kid. I do not know what an appropriate discipline for a lot of her actions would be.

Time outs work OK for her. They do give her a break and they act as a distractment from what is going on. I can put her in a time out (after a few warnings) and go back to her after she's been there for a couple minutes. Before letting her out, we talk about what the problem is, why she's in time out, and what can be done to correct and prevent the situation from happening again. That does work for her.

I wouldn't say she is in TO a lot. I would say she is in TO a lot compared to Maddox. Faelyn has been in TO at age 2.5 years 2-3 times more than Maddox has been in his entire 6 years. Time outs are not every single day. Sometimes they're not even every single week. Maybe for now it is a good enough form of discipline. For Faelyn.