Actions and consequences

Regular perusers of my journal will by now have realized that Gleek has entered a challenging phase. “Challenging” is being used as a verb not an adjective. She is challenging my authority. She is challenging the family rules. She is trying to see how far rules can be made to bend to suit her whims.

Today she told me an outright lie. She and her friend asked for a marker. I told them “No” since the last three times they’d had a marker it had resulted in massive amounts of body art on Gleek, recoloring the playset purple, and coloring the neighbor’s toddler’s ears completely purple and yellow. Yes, the entire ear, on both ears, one yellow, one purple. I don’t get it either. No more markers for these two. A very short time after my refusal to provide a marker, Gleek and her friend announced their intention to return to his house. Gleek announced this by saying “I’m going to M’s house! I don’t have a marker!” This made me very suspicious. I was even more suspicious when she didn’t want to let me get close to her. She had a marker concealed up her pants leg. I sent the friend home and told Gleek she couldn’t play with friends for the rest of the day.

She took the restriction pretty well. We found other things for her to do. Then when bedtime rolled around I left Gleek and Patches eating a snack while I went to the bathroom. When I returned they were gone. I called. I checked all the rooms. Twice. I called some more. I checked the front yard. I was ready to start knocking on neighbor’s doors. I wasn’t scared yet, but I was getting mad. Howard joined the search. He was the one who found them. In the family room. Hiding under blankets. and giggling.

Howard scolded them severely. This made Patches howl in fear. He isn’t used to getting scolded. The scolding seemed to bounce right off of Gleek. But it didn’t bounce off completely, because after all the scolding was over (I contributed some too,) the two of them curled up on the couch with me for snuggling and reassurance. Gleek informed me: “Daddy used his ultra voice.”

Indeed he did.