Small and Wise

The battle has begun. Those of you who know, know that in attitude, Kiara is freakishly like me. It's scary to be honest. Today, we had the first of which I'm sure is to be many, battles.
I was playing on the floor with Cason. She stood over me, raised her arm, and threw her stone down at me. I sent her to her room. Gave her the old, "that's completely inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour!" line. This is nothing new. I sit her on the chair and give her some time to chill out. Who are we kidding? It's mostly time for me. Today, however, for reasons unknown, I decided it was imperative that she apologize. I wouldn't let her leave until she did. Don't panic. I didn't just tell her this and walk away. I told her that I wanted to hear "sorry". That's all. One word. I kept coming back and reminding her what I was waiting for. I was pretty calm. Even tried a repeating game. Fail. After 40 minutes I went to my parenting expert, google, to see what I was doing wrong. Maybe some tips. Heck, maybe I'm expecting far too much of my almost 2 year old. Then I came across this:

Not a day goes by that I don't hear at least one teacher or administrator say to a child, "I want you to apologize." The child usually looks down, scrapes her foot
against the carpet or pavement, and says, "Sorry." It can be expected
that the infraction the child was asked to apologize for will soon be
recommitted. This happens, of course, because the child is not really
sorry for her behavior. She is performing a social function that
someone else has asked of her. When a person is truly sorry, she speaks words of apology in the moment, shows a sense of remorse, sadness, or concern, and thinks carefully about how she speaks to and acts toward others in the future.
Many adults speak words of apology lightly. They do not mean that they
feel bad about unkind words spoken or unkind acts committed. If we
expect our children to learn to apologize truthfully, we must model
the behavior ourselves. We must also teach our children when and how
to apologize. Simply saying "Sorry" doesn't cut it.

Now I feel like trash. Why oh why isn't this mom thing easier?! Who's funny idea is it to give us children that are a reflection of ourselves?! NO FAIR! **stomps feet**




Me:"I'm sorry I made you stay in your room so long."
Kiara:"Ok mom"
Me:"It's just that I want you to learn empathy but I guess I can't really force that can I?"
Kiara:"Ya mom. Where's Jax?"