The Mind of a 3 Year Old

There are days when I would pay money to get inside Sam's head. I just don't understand what goes through that little brain. Sometimes I smile and am so proud of the things he says and does but other times I wonder if he's fallen too many times and injured his brain! Like this morning for instance, he hit Claire for whatever silly reason and ended up in time out. Once in time out he screamed and kept getting up from the time out spot. When I would go to put him back he would hit me. Every time he got up I would reset the clock for 3 1/2 minutes which is how long he has to sit in time out. After 5 minutes or so of sitting he starts screaming "I want to get up! I don't want to be in time out!" Well of course you want to get up! Then stop moving from the time out spot and sit still for 3 1/2 minutes and we wouldn't have this problem. If this had been the only time he did this it would be one thing but we constantly go through the time out ritual of him getting up and me putting him back and him hitting me in the process. I have firmly explained to him that if he sits still he could get up quickly and go back to playing but he doesn't seem to get that.

Then, to make matters worse after he hit Claire and went to time out he walked over and pushed her off of the ottoman. She could have broken her neck! I was furious and back to time out Sam went. You would have thought that since he had just been there minutes earlier he would have learned the process but that definitely wasn't the case and once again it took us several minutes to get him to sit for just 3 1/2 minutes.

Ah, if only I knew what was going through that little head. Maybe it would be the key to all of my discipline problems but since that will never happen I guess I will just have to figure them out on my own.