"Matati"

I have been a Grandmother for over 3 years and I can't say it gets any easier. Don't get me wrong, I love my role as the grandmother who is called "Matati". It is just that when it comes to the discipline aspect of my role, lately, I have hit a brick wall...... hard.

My grandson, Archer, is 3 years old and truly such a joy in our lives. However, lately he is a handful! Very independent and that is fine, but also very argumentative and stubborn and that is not fine when the grandparents are exhausted.

I have yet to send him to 'time-out', but I came very close a couple of days ago. When my children were young and would act similarly, there was no 'time-out', just a swat on the butt and sent to their room. Archers' parents use the time-out method.

To give you some idea of how trying it was, this was the scenario: It is 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. Archer's bath has been ready for about 30 minutes and is getting colder by the minute. Archer is playing with his remote controlled tractor and keeps running into the dog. The dog is being extremely patient, mainly because she is a Golden Retriever who is used to these shenanigans, but also because her arthritis is so bad, she will only get up if she absolutely must. After several verbal commands to stop, from me and from Grampaw, Archer is totally ignoring us, and I am ready to take the toy away and prepare myself for the screaming fit. Then out of the blue, he says: "It is my toy, all mine, and I can do whatever I want with it!"

Hmmmm....really. This is not the Archer we have known. This child is some sort of alien in our house. I take the tractor away, and the remote control device and yes, the screaming begins. I go into the bathroom and close the door. Just me, and a tub of lukewarm water. The urge to get in and put my head underwater so I won't hear Archer is strong, but I just sit there, on the edge, literally, almost in tears. Yikes.

Then I hear this little voice on the other side of the door, "Matati, I need to come in and take my bath." I open the door, he struts in, takes his clothes off, gets in the tub and begins playing with his bath toys. It was like nothing ever happened, like we had just survived some sort of time warp. Amazing. Incredible. Almost scary.