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Halloween over? Finally, I can use Santa threats
Normally, I would say I deplore the fact that the signs of the holidays seem to appear earlier every year. The day after Thanksgiving, now that's a good time for stores to start decorating their walls and windows with wreaths, holly and the like. After all, it's a special time, not to be cheapened or stretched out, right? 
But this year I've decided that there's one good benefit to the premature holiday madness. The more my son sees images of Santa Claus, the more he thinks he must behave in order to get a couple of those toys he's been eyeing in the catalogs that started appearing in our mailbox a couple weeks ago.
Oh yeah, I did it. The "Santa's-watching-you" threat ... I'm not above it. Because I have to use every weapon at my arsenal to control the occasional tantrum and the almost constant jostling with his little brother over toys. Time-outs just aren't doing it. A warning about naughty boys not getting presents on Christmas day? Now that's effective.
And yeah, I get that it's not the right permanent solution. I get that it's not the wisest disciplinary tool. But I'm doing it anyway.
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Comments
Thanks for your entry. My wife and I will consider your advice.
Posted by: D.Latson | November 5, 2007 7:15 PM
Apparently, Halloween is over for our family. We reached a milestone this year. For the first time in my child's life, there was no trick-or-treating or even going out on Halloween night.
She is finally "too old" for it. She spent Halloween night reading chapters in her AP books. Didn't even want to answer the door for the other trick-or-treaters. Sure, there were a couple of Halloween parties the weekend before. But we had never entirely skipped Halloween before! Not even when Wilma threatened to cancel it for everyone.
Sure, last year, she didn't go door to door, but there was still dressing up and spending the evening with friends.
How do you deal when your child decides they are too old for Halloween? I guess it has to come sometime, and she will be 17 in a few months.
But I guess it just really hit me, childhood is about over. And when you only have one child, that's hard to accept, isn't it?
When did your child stop trick-or-treating? or going out on Halloween night?
Posted by: stephanie | November 12, 2007 1:28 AM