It seems as though the magic is wearing off of the "OK to Wake" clock. I figured it would probably happen eventually, but I was hoping it would be longer than 3 weeks. The past few mornings Annika has come out of her room before the clock turned green, and it's happened a few times at quiet time too (I've started making quiet time a bit shorter, to make it easier for her to stay in her room). She doesn't seem too concerned anymore about waiting and watching for it to turn green. I'm not quite sure how to deal with it - on one hand, I'd really like to enforce the fact that she has to stay in her room until it turns green, but on the other hand, is it worth the fight? Especially when she's up in the morning, and it's only about 10 minutes until her "wake up" time. Is it really worth it to start a fight first thing in the morning, over 10 minutes? However, she doesn't really have any sense of time - when she wakes up she doesn't know if it's 10 minutes until the clock turns green, or 30 minutes, and if I let her get away with coming out of her room for the 10 minutes, then she'll think she can do it for the 30 minutes too. (I'll admit, I'm being very selfish here - but it's been so nice to have some time to myself in the morning, or just with Emmett, even if it is just 10 minutes).
I'm hoping that this is just part of a phase that she's going through. Lately she's been more difficult (which I hope is a short-lived phase). For a while things were going quite well - especially at supper time - and that seems to have changed. Lately she hasn't been listening very well, and even punishments and threats of punishments don't seem to make any difference to her. Usually I give her a count to 3 warning, and that's enough to make her listen, but the other day I said to her "Annika" (in that "I'm warning you" tone) and she replied "one... two..." - like she knew I was going to start counting, and she figured she'd just do it for me. Supper times have also been more difficult again lately. Like I said, I'm hoping this is just a phase, and I'm guessing that it has to do with the attention that we've been giving Emmett lately. He's learned to sit on his own, he's eating all kinds of new foods, and he's teething (no teeth yet though), so he's been getting more attention from us lately. I'm sure she notices that, and it is at least partly the reason for her behaviour. I need to work on giving her more positive attention, so hopefully she'll stop seeking the negative attention.
3 comments:
I totally agree that one-on-one time with the older kids is super important. All we need to do is invent more hours in the day...
I'd say you need to stick by the OK to Wake clock. If you like what it did in the beginning, then it's worth it! In dealing with Wee Man, I'm kept on my toes constantly because he's the sort who is always trying to figure out how far he can push the edge of the box. So, if you stand firm that quiet time isn't over until the clock says it's over, then that's what the rule is. She may not like it, but that's OK.
We got the same clock for Wyatt about a week ago. It's really hit and miss with him, more often than not, he comes out to tell me his clock isn't green yet. *sigh*
I agree that it's hard to know if it's worth it for 10 minutes. But like you said, next time it could be 30 minutes. Or suddenly she's up at 6am and she figures "Mom let me get up before my clock turned green last time, why not today?" It's when things get inconsistent that it's confusing for them. So I'd say stick with the OK to wake clock and its glow. We always have had an 8:00 rule at our house, and I stick to it to this day. They can play quietly in their rooms (or even in each other's rooms if they're both awake) if it's before 8:00, but they're not allowed to go downstairs and start watching morning TV or anything until the clock turns to 8:00.
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