the "Thinking Chair"

When still a teacher at a toddler school in Surabaya, I used to share with this mother a lot. She was a teacher herself for a primary school. Her son was two years old when he entered my music class. Such a shy boy. For several first meetings he would just stand behind his dad and wouldn't move a bit, leave alone to sing or dance. But then we managed to crack his shell :)

I guess everyone would know who he got the shell from, since his mom was such a sanguine that we would hang around with all day conversing with. While his dad was this quiet neat man who sometimes made me laugh with his awkward movement when music played during the class (but he got my thumbs up for his hearty try to fire up his son).

Okay, back to the missus, we usually had a talk when she took her younger son to exercise his gross motor skill in the morning. She would ask me how my pregnancy was going and tell me how he got her both boys delivered. Then she would tell me that Clark -the shy big brother- could be such a rebel at home and wouldn't stop talking. And every time he made a mess, she wouldn't do the pinch or shout but just simply asked him to sit in his "thinking chair" for 10 minutes. then after that she would pop the question; "Have you found what you did wrong?" and problem solved with no war whatsoever.

I always sighed at the idea. Almost like the "time-out" rule on the Nanny 911.

Now I can't think of sighing anymore. Well, I DO sigh - not in relieve, but at the edge of exploding. I can't seem to apply the "thinking chair" policy with Esha. Not because she doesn't get the idea, but because I stress out upfront. Way to go, mom.
But, sometimes, I just can't say or do anything anymore when she rebels and choose to just leave her alone and sit on my own. Surprisingly, it works the same effect; she would stop the racket and come up to me to apologize.

Well, I guess that's her thinking chair and, yes, silence works better than shouting. That's when you're not in panic.