Monday, June 15, 2009

Just Something I Want to Remember

This morning Auden locked us out of our bathroom. She was not stuck in the bathroom; she'd locked the door and pulled it closed behind her. Chad's solution would have been to send her in through the small window and have her unlock the door from the inside. I thought breaking down the door would be a slightly better idea.

She'd been told, repeatedly, not to lock the door, ever. I sent her to time-out while Chad tried to unlock the door with a coat hanger. I told her she could get out of time-out when her dad got the door open, whether that would take one minute or one hour. Her time-outs usually last 3 minutes, so she knew this was a Big Deal. She had sincere remorse.

About five minutes in, she asked, "Could we just hold hands while I'm waiting?"

Her request caught me off guard. "Sure," I said. We held hands for a couple of minutes, just waiting, not talking. Then the door popped open and we were both free.