kittygrape was reprimanded yesterday for playing with powdered laundry soap and making a huge mess. First of all, I had already explicitly told her to NOT play with the soap. second of all I had already smelled the soap on her hands before I saw the mess, and I had hoped that she had just played with it while it was in the box so I could talk to her calmly about listening to directions (wrong, of course). When stepped in to the pile of laundry soap in the hallway I lost my cool and my voice rose, yelling her name at least three times because she did not appear when I called. no surprise there because she had already ran away to hide. however, I found her hiding with her soap scented hands in her face on the couch. she is usually better at hiding when we are actually playing hide and seek.
once she knew what the consequences were, she owned up to it and cleaned up after herself. Today she spilled the remnants of the soap that was in a bottle we didn't notice yesterday. She cleaned it up herself right away, hashtag parenting win.
It's these little victories that I enjoy but can I do this for another 14 years+ without losing bits of my being until I have nothing of myself left?
