1-2-3 Magic!

Recently the wife and I attended church. Calm down calm down, we aren't converting. We were attending a parenting workshop called "1, 2, 3 Magic!" The workshop was being held at Kippax community church.

What it amounted to was a three hour video from a PHD Psychotherapist about controlling children's behaviour. While that may not seem worth $10 a head, the three hours free child care that came with it certainly was.

1, 2, 3, Magic is basically a child behaviour control technique. A process to follow when the kid acts up or misbehaves. It is designed in such a way as to get them to comply with your demands before the punishment is doled out. It takes a certain idea of what is right and wrong to apply the method going in, but if you follow the procedure all will be goodness and light.

This method would benefit people who:

• Haven't done squat about discipline in the past.


• Have no consistency in their approach.


• Are at their wits end.


• Don't have a child with a more serious problem.

It basically harnesses the simple concept of having a discipline regimen and applying it consistently and fairly. That's it. By adding a specific structure they created a saleable product based on something every parent should bloody well know in the first place.

The presentation includes a lot of details around the logic behind a kids behaviour, what they will and will not respond to and how to better view your role as a parent. I would recommend one checking it out but only as a single peice in your repertoire of No-Good-Sneaky-Manipulative-Mum-N-Dad-Tricks(tm).

I'll also note that if your child has a real behavioural malfunction beyond being a spoilt little shit then this will only make things far worse.

And finally, the most important ingredient is left out of 1-2-3 Magic!

LOVE!!

If the kid only ever gets interaction from you in the shape of stoney discipline then they will have no reason to respect you. Even if you are being fair. Give them love and they will listen. Not even solely as a reward but for it's own sake and as often as you can. I've been giving Fuzzy Wuzzy random cuddles, kisses and affectionate epithets for months and he has started to do what I say when I say it. Because he craves the approval of those that love him.

Wouldn't you?

Potty A Go Go

Fuzzy Wuzzy is now fully potty trained. We still fit him with a nappy at night and if we have to travel for more than an hour. As far as skills go though, he goes when he has to and even dresses himself now all he has to deal with is undies. Thank you to Nan for sending the Thomas the Tank Engine branded undies. They were the extra push he needed.

I feel as though a great wait has been lifted from my Shoulders. He can do no wrong. Well, not for at least a week.

Proud Potty

Fuzzy Wuzzy did his first deposit into the toilet last night. He heaved and heaved and mouthed words he could not speak because of all the heaving. Then the inevitable -plop- sounded and he went nuts with excitement. We have spent the last week building him up to this event you see.

For a parent, it is a great time of celebration with praise and chocolate heaped upon the executor of the task.

Like all great moments in a child's development, this one did not pass without a certain witticism from Fuzzy Wuzzy.

"It looks like a sausage!" he exclaimed. Loudly and proudly I might add.

Do I have a feacalphiliac on my hands? Time will tell.

Thredbo - I liked It!

One of the great implied traditions of living in Canberra is that you go to the snow every year. I imagine this is in part due to:
* Living but an hour and a half from the slopes makes it convenient.
* Living in a capital city you have more than enough money to afford to go
* The ads tell you that you ought to and who are we mere citizens to deny the beast its measure?

So, after 12 years of living in Canberra I had yet to go to the snow. This is because:
* Even an hour and a half is too long to spend on a bus in my opinion.
* Even being on a relatively high salary, getting by isn't as cheap as it used to be.
* I automatically disregard ads that try to sell me things I'm not already interested in.

I think the latter is a sort of a 'conditioned fiscal safety measure' I've developed from watching too much TV.

Despite all this, I went to the snow this weekend. It was my brothers Bucks getaway thingy. So I could hardly refuse.

I had a great time.

But it was Thredbo. Be advised, Thredbo is for the serious skier. Apart from skiing and snowboarding, Thredbo has nothing to offer you couldn't get anywhere else.

But I am told that Perisher Blue and Blue Cow have a wider variety of 'fun in the snow' available beyond skiiing. Especially Perisher Blue.

So I guess that's next years holiday already planned. These months are also the best time to go as far as weather is concerned.

A Rainy Morning in Canberra

Twas a rainy morning in Canberra yesterday. This was massively inconvenient to me and the Lish. The reason why is, she had to bring Fuzzy Wuzzies mattress in from the front porch.

The mattress was on the front porch because that is where the best sun falls on our property.

We needed the best sun because we were trying to dry out said mattress. the mattress obviously being wet.

The mattress was wet because I had had to clean it with soap and water.

I had to clean the mattress because Fuzzy Wuzzy had wet it.

Fuzzy Wuzzy had wet the mattress with the contents of his bladder. The extent of wetting indicates more than one bladders worth of his urine got into it.

He was able to do this because he has taken to stripping off ENTIRELY at night. He has become quite the nudity ninja as well. Lish and I had no idea he had been disrobing after lights out.

I'm not exaggerating when I say, the puddle of piss he was sleeping in at the time was larger than him. The mattress has a foam core and, thankfully, I think it repelled most of the night water.

If you don't have at least one bed disaster built on a foundation of urine I don't think you qualify as a real parent. We have had roughly 10 all up so far. That doesn't include poonami floods that break the banks and blot the landscape of clothing as far as the eye can see. Always fun those ones. Stare bear has had two of those in the last two days.

Oh the travails.

The Next Place To Be

Having studied in Canberra from 1995 to 1999, I missed out on the last big town centre creation. That Town centre is Gunghalin and I missed out in that I didn't get a new home there while they were going cheap.

I picked up my inlaws house nice and cheap and while it is half way up a hill, the neighbours trees block the view. They are big ugly rubbish dropping trees to boot and they endanger my phone line.

But I'm not here to whine about that, I'm here to crow about this. The planned developments for the Molonglo Valley.

That there is pristine, untouched farmland with an idyllic creek, spectacular views of the mountains and the most central location in Canberra I've ever seen outside Civic. They have to kick off the existing lease holders, clean up the decades of agricultural industry, generally tidy up the place and pollute the creek. But if they put it together nicely with big suburban roads and decent sized blocks I'll be in like flynn.

Dinner Discipline Disaster

Well, I guess it had to be.

My dear little Fuzzy Wuzzy is very head strong and obstinate. Normally I'd appreciate this 'take no crap' attitude in a person. As a child it means that he has seen through my facade and realised that going straight to bed isn't actually my desired dinnertime result. By both not eating AND going to bed without dinner he has thwarted my real desire. That desire of course is to get him to eat all his meal every night without a fuss.

I gambled a short term loss for a long term gain and lost. I think I've failed to factor in who my boy is and how certain strategies will work on a mental level. He wins through successfully defying my authority. That's all. A petty victory is still a victory. He isn't stupid and that's no lie.

So now I must turn my attention to a new strategy. If I have learned from this I need to show I understand what motivates my boy. Discipline certainly isn't it.

I think I may have to, once again, gamble a short term loss for the hope of a long term gain. If he doesn't eat, then eating is not what will happen. I will simply remove the remains of his food without a fuss at 6:30 that that will be the end of it. No confrontation, no demands and no direct discipline. And certainly no dessert. Is that a capitulation? I don't think so.

I am simply removing my authority from the equation. If I remove that which motivates him to defiance, all that's left is the motivation to satisfy himself. If I quietly deny food then he will have to think about the problem in the context of only himself. Maybe he'll smarten up his act on his own.

I certainly hope so.