The ‘Don’t smile, don’t laugh’ rule.
Disciplining is hard work and it’s hard to know what to do and how to react at times. It’s hard to judge motive in little ones who can’t talk and even when they can, they sometimes still can’t explain why they did something. So we guess, sometimes we’re right and many times we are wrong but that’s okay, we learn and it gets easier, hopefully anyway. Our one rule that we stick to for ourselves is ‘Don’t smile, don’t laugh.’ The little ones love attention and a smile only encourages them and so we try to hold them back when they are being naughty but sometimes it is hard.
Wrigglebot was meant to be napping, he sleeps on the top bunk and has many toys and books up there. Suddenly I hear, ‘Mummy I’m stuck.’ I have a quick look, expecting to see him dangling from his bunk or his head wedged in the ladder or some such catastrophe, instead I see his doona and I know that I cannot cope with this one so I call in reinforcements. Husband deals with a Wrigglebot who had undone the buttons and crawled into his doona cover and could not find his way out again. Husband did exceptionally, abiding by the rule until he left the room and then we both lost it.
It does make me think though, when I was a child and got in trouble, were my parents really angry or were they just following the ‘Don’t smile, don’t laugh’ rule. I’m sure that’s what it was.


