Loving Even When it is Tough

Here is a little parenting story that taught me about love. After writing it, it makes me feel like my house is out of control. But this does not happen too often - at least I hope.

We reward Eli with candy any time that he poops in the potty. If he poops right before his nap, we make him set the candy aside until he wakes up. That is what happened yesterday.

We also give Isaac a candy whenever Eli poops in the potty. This is to spur on some peer pressure to encourage Eli to poop in the potty. Yesterday, Isaac threw a fit after lunch over the fact that we were out of applesauce and he could not have any for dessert; therefore, we sent him to bed early. This caused him to not be awake when we had the poop candy celebration.

When Eli and Isaac were both back awake, Eli went to get his candy. Isaac started to complain that he did not have a candy. I told him that he was punished for throwing a fit and would not get a candy. He then became angry and started yelling, "Eli is mean! Mean! Mean!" If there was any anger, it should have been directed at me. Eli was innocent. All he did was poop in the toilet.

Eli responded by immediately going over to the candy, picking out a sucker (Isaac's favorite item) and bringing it to him. I was not about to take it away. I did not want Isaac to be rewarded for the bad behavior, but I did not want to rob Eli of participating in a loving act after being treated wrongly.

I hope I can be as loving to those who treat me wrongly.