My tomatoes are learning and growing

Parenting is always a challenge if you have one child or if you have five like me. Each child is different and responds to discipline differently.

Joshua has a soft heart so if you change the tone of your voice he listens 90% of the time. Elijah just wants to be the alpha dog so with him you have to use a combination of discipline and teaching as well. Jacob hates being told he cannot play with is toys so time out usually works unless he is in a mood and then a good swat on the butt does just fine. Hannah you just have to tell her "no" for right now. ESTHER, well she an entirely different child all together. She is stubborn and strong-willed, and that is on a good day.

So I was researching techniques to not destroy her personality but modify her behavior. I came across this website. Now she has more children then I do and so I was curious how she disciplined her children. The neat thing is that she has subjects on the side that tell you how she handles numerous things, whining, tempers, sharing, etc.

For my sanity I decided that I would try some of the techniques that worked for her. Some of them have worked for Esther and some not so well. Parenting is all about trial and error, right? Esther hates to be in time-out because she has to stand in the corner and look at the wall and not everyone playing. That has worked for us. Also the fact that when she is being mean she has to hold the seam of my pants and go where I go and not be able to play until I can trust her again.

Parenting is a hard thing and there are techniques that work for some and not for others. It is like potty training, everyone has a technique that worked for them, but it does not guarantee that it will work on your child.

So my tomatoes are learning and growing and I just have to trust that the Gardner put me in charge of them for a reason.