Angelo and I have had a struggle with Tony recently. Obedience. When we ask him to do something (such as putting toys away, or getting ready for bed) he doesn't do it right away. After we ask him another time, and finally raise our voice over the matter does he do as he was asked.
Obviously this will not fly in our house for we believe in "obey right away." Yesterday, one by one - Tony's privilege were taken away from him. Not able to play a favorite game, not able to watch a favorite program on TV, no bedtime stories, no dessert and the like. It was quite a boring afternoon for him yesterday. He wasn't entirely happy about it either. Several times he came to me and told me he was sorry and that he learned his lesson. I hugged him and replied that I was glad he learned his lesson about obedience.
I knew why he was coming to me - he was hoping his privilege would be reinstated. Before he had a chance to ask about the privilege, I told him that even though he learned his lesson, he still had to pay the consequences for his disobedience, so he still couldn't (whatever privilege he was hoping to reinstate).
Tony's response alternated between "I don't love you anymore," to "I am very angry at you," to simply tears and crying. After the proper cooling off period, he and I spent some time talking. I reminded him of how important it was to obey right away, especially in life and death matters.
Well, today Tony was some better, not perfect mind you, but better. But then he had the threat of losing his reading goal reward if he was disobedient today.
So my question is this: do all children this age try to get away with at least very slow actions to obey?
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