knock knock banana

What a ridiculous title for a blog post! But it is what it is. It'll explain itself later...eventually.

My daughter can't get out of her own way. Sometimes she starts in on something and blows it way out of proportion till it's absolutely ridiculous. She will be beside herself with anger over something as simple as: me telling her "no" to a piece of gum before dinner. Anyone else live in this ridiculous parenting world? Or am I alone here, pulling my hair out strand by strand...

With this child of mine, I have realized that I cannot deal with her situation until she can garner an ounce of logic back in to her brain. Typically during an episode (she's too old for them to be called tantrums, so we call them episodes... but they're really tantrums) all she can see is what she wants and isn't getting, while logic leaks out the back door. Sometimes we manage this by using the "squirrel technique." If any of you parents have ever seen the movie Up, you know what I'm talking about: distraction. 

Tonight's method of distraction: my awesome sense of humor. As I sat in her room, listening to her moan, I started telling her the knock knock banana joke. 

Me: knock, knock

Her: moan

Me: banana!

Her: moan

And I repeated that 3 times followed by:

Me: knock, knock

Her: moan with smile

Me: orange

Her: loud moan because she knows the punchline

Me: orange you glad I didn't say banana?!

And as she started to giggle, I told her two other silly knock knock jokes and by the time I was finished, she was giggling, back to herself, ready to have a conversation. And I didn't raise my voice once! 

If I can get my girl back to "conversation mode" we will be able to make astounding steps in the right direction. By the end of our conversation this evening, she was apologizing without any promoting from me. 

In this world of parenting, you need a sense of humor. If you can't laugh at yourself or with your kids once in a while, you might find yourself going slowly insane. 

KC