Parenting Woes

Well this week has not been a stellar one for behavior so far and apparently my parenting methods aren't helping matters too much. The major issue is Joshua aggravating Gray and Gray finding that he must shout about every annoyance. And if Joshua keeps up whatever he's doing, Gray escalates to throwing a fit and/or hitting Joshua/throwing things at him/etc. So I thought to myself that what we really need is swift and consistent punishment on Joshua every time he bothers Gray. Joshua LOVES his stuffed animals and keeps his bed full of them at night. Each one is special to him and if you dare suggest giving any away, he thinks he will probably die.

So I told him today that he must go and get a stuffed animal and put it on my bed every time he bothers Gray and he won't get them back till tomorrow morning. He seemed very upset by this and I explained that I was glad he didn't like it because we need to work together to help him stop doing the wrong thing and punishment will do that...supposedly. Fast forward to 11 am. I've accumulated 5 or 6 stuffed animals in a couple of hours. Joshua goes upstairs where Gray is and I hear him tell Gray, "I don't like that!" and then Gray starts crying like he's hurt. A few minutes pass and Joshua comes downstairs. I ask him what he did to Gray. He says, "I kicked him because he was being silly. I put two animals on your bed." Great. He's dolling out his own punishment...even doubling it...and it's not phasing him a bit.

I keep telling myself that they are no different than me. I fall into the same sin over and over again and at times I think I will never move on. But when you're the one responsible for teaching and guiding these children and that is your primary job, it sure is frustrating to feel like you're failing. I've definitely been reminded a lot this week about how much our whole family needs the Holy Spirit to work in us! Now if we could just get on some kind of "fast track" to change plan.... I have a feeling it's not going to work that way:)