Do you believe me now?

They say the key to disciplining your child is to pick a consequence and then enforce it. I am good at picking the consequence and not so good at the enforcing. Yes, I am sad to admit that I am an idle threater, and I am pretty sure I made that word up. Sadly my kids don't really take me seriously. I can't say I blame them because how can I ground them forever? Or not let them play for a month? Would I really haul all their toys to the DI?

Last week Noah's little world got rocked. I actually followed through on a few of my threats. I am on a personal mission to train my kids to pick their socks up. I can't seem to get Matt to but, come hell or high water, my kids will. I told them that every time I pick up a sock they owe me 10 minutes of work. Noah had two socks picked up and had to do 2o minutes of work. He threw a fit like you wouldn't believe: explaining sock conspiracy theories, crying, throwing things. But I set the timer and he cleaned his room for 20 minutes. It worked. I haven't found a sock yet.

We've been telling Noah since we moved into this house that we will take his door off the hinges if he slams it again. He keeps slamming his door but it's always been too big a pain to actually take it off. Sunday was his unlucky day.


His reaction was far worse than I expected. Let's just say he wasn't happy about it. Fortunately his prediction of "dying without my door on" didn't come true. The door is still off, so I don't know if he's learned his lesson. But I am feeling a little more confident with my discipline skills and eventually I might actually be good at it. At least maybe now my kids will take me seriously.