Where to Turn
Shelby had a tough spell yesterday. (For those of you who do not know Shelby personally, you may want to read about here here or here or a really old one here .) Anyway, 5-year old Shelby and 7-year old Daniel were outside playing on the trampoline. When I heard them approaching the front porch, I knew it had been bad. Shelby was screaming like some sort of wild monkey and Daniel was yelling at her. They fought their way into the door, tear- and sweat-drenched. After they cried through their personalized versions of the story, it was easy to see what happened: Daniel had wanted to get off the trampoline, Shelby didn't want him to. So she clobbered him. And then lied about it. What a mess. So I sent her to her room as my husband and I discussed how to handle her. She continued the banshee-like screaming the entire 15 or so minutes that we let her settle down. And when I walked into her room to talk to her about her bad decisions and the consequences ...