wink     ; )

Pre-emptive self-punishment

Spark is turning out to be very easy to discipline. He starts getting upset if he even thinks that he has done something wrong. We don't even need to punish him; he pre-emptively punishes himself.

For example, when my friend was visiting, he left his wallet on a table by the door. Spark wandered over to the table and grabbed the wallet and walked into the study where we were talking. My response: "Oh Ho! [laughter] What have you got there?" My friend's response: "You've got a very smart boy there."

Somehow in those responses, Spark got the idea that he had done something wrong. He froze in his tracks and got a very worried look on his face. He then proceeded to burst into tears. No amount of reassurance that he was not in trouble and that he had done nothing wrong would console him.

So he's very easy to keep in line. Now how do I keep him from being oversensitive?