Forest green earmuffs

Tonight EH is at a function for work so the boys and I had planned a movie night. We snuggled up on my old sleeping bag, under our sheet fort and munched on organic gummy bears (thanks to Ga for recently restocking our fun snack selection!) and watched a Baby Einstein movie (H's choice and a very nice one I might add since little E also enjoyed it). We had a great time and by the end of the movie of course the fort was half demolished.

The odd part of our night was that H wore earmuffs through the movie. Let me explain. EH and I have been trying to instill the seriousness of not hitting a little brother on the head (with hands, drum sticks, pillows or electrical cords!) H with all his excitable energy has a hard time remembering this. Tonight it was the electrical cord with plug . . . I sent H up to his room so that the fumes coming out my ears could simmer down a bit and breathed a prayer for wisdom. Little E got away relatively unscathed and was happily babbling over a toy so I didn't think this warranted a spanking but I wanted to get H's attention.

I'm pretty sure I didn't read this in a parenting book . . . I happened to think of an old winter ear band with fuzzy round spots where the ears go that I wore honestly about 15 years ago. How could this possibly be seen as punishment? I determined that it's all in the presentation, and boy did the presentation work. One hour of wearing the earmuffs (which in hinds sight might have been a little long) was the declared punishment . . . and boy were there tears of protest. (Like he hadn't just worn them around the house for the fun of it just a couple of months ago!) He succeeded a full hour in the end and he even remembered what the lesson to be learned was. I think I'll have to hang those lovely forest green earmuffs up somewhere so that I can point to them as a reminder . . . then again here's to hoping something was driven home tonight.