Discipline

I got to hang out with Adler last night while Kristine went out for a girls night to see Sex & the City.  We had a really good time, watching Cars (his favorite movie/obsession) and playing trains.  It was some good bonding time, but once we got into the bath Adler didn't want to sit down.  For some reason he's going through this phase where he just doesn't like to sit in the water.  After a few tries and talking him into sitting down and counting "1....2....3" I had to give Adler a spanking.  I'm not a fan of this, because it's just hard to do to your kid, but we're starting to go through this defiant stage where Adler likes to test the waters and see how far he can take Kristine and I.  So...we're having to learn to discipline Adler, and most importantly we want to discipline out of love.  I want Adler to grow up knowing how to make a "good decision" and not end up on "Super Nanny" because we've let him grow up a tyrant.  He's so sweet and I think that's what makes discipline so hard for parents to really follow through on.

The hardest part was that Adler was so sad after his spanking, not because he was hurt (I didn't even spank him hard), but because he looked like he knew he had disappointed me and was sad about it.  Needless to say, I kind of folded after that and wanted to cuddle with him...it's sooooo true that it really does hurt the parent more than the child.