It’s the slightest bit possible that I overreacted to Lion’s email the other day. Ok, it’s entirely possible. Yes, I did. A little. I guess Lion tends to get very “Men Are From Mars…” when it comes to my kids, especially my daughter. He wants her to stand on her own two feet and make her own way in the world. I didn’t stand on my own two feet until…I’ve never stood on my own two feet. But I understand. It just seems like asking about a computer program installation doesn’t rise to the level of not being able to stand on her own two feet.
On the other hand, my getting upset and vowing to punish Lion was a big step for me. We’ve established that I won’t stick up for myself, but go after my kids and, boy, we’ve got problems. That’s not to say that Lion should go after my kids on a regular basis. I might have to figure out how to stand on my own two feet if he did that. The point is, he hit that sweet spot of making me punish him. Maybe next time he pisses me off I should remember that feeling and let him have it.
Speaking of that, Lion wants to try a different punishment tack. He wants me to swat him in short bursts. I whomp, I wait, I whomp, I wait. Rinse and repeat. Why not? We’ve tried all sorts of things. He thinks it will help him handle longer punishments. I suppose that means he wants me to give him longer punishments. Up to now, I’ve been stopping when I thought I got my point across. I know that’s been too soon for Lion, but it was long enough for me.
I’m not sure how I’ll know when it’s long enough. Do I go until I find it absurd? That may not be too much longer. Do I go until Lion asks me to stop? He asks that even before I think I’m done. Do I pick a certain number of swats or a length of time? I guess I could try that. And then we’ll regroup afterwards to see if that number or length of time worked for Lion. How many swats? What length of time? Trial and error. Good thing I’m ok with experiments.
