with the cutest little stern voice saying,
"Xiang Mao, Time out."
(panda placed on stairs in dollhouse)
Panda replies in third person, as always, "Xiang Mao, I'm a saw-we, Mama" to which Mama Levi replies, "I fee-gib you, Xiang Mao. I love you."
(panda tenderly hugged)
Panda replies in third person, as always, "Xiang Mao say Yes, Mama. No, Boo Mama."
Levi throws hands up in the air and cheers. "Yeah! All done time-out!"
Something's sticking, me thinks ;-)
*FYI, time-outs are a little different around here than they are on Supernanny. Here, it's more like a "time-in." With kids from hard places, often neglected and/or abused...the goal is not to give the child the opportunity to "check out" or to be alone. To an adopted child this communicates that they are not wanted and that they can literally be sent away or emotionally abandoned. Sometimes children from hard places will intentionally misbehave just to see if they will still be loved OR because they are so afraid to love and to be hurt again that they will do whatever they can to build walls...like misbehave and/or avoid the new parent. Sending a child away gives the child a "reward" for bad behavior, the chance to avoid a relationship. Instead, we give a "time-in" where the child has to sit for an age-appropriate length of time with the parent nearby (usually doing something that looks like lots more fun than the child is having sitting on their own) until they're ready for a "do-over" where the child must practice handling a situation the right way. We have been known to make a child do the right behavior until they're laughing themselves silly. :-)
