Costume Party & Yelling

Spiderman
Peter Pan
Captain Hook
A Stingray (Mr. Ray from Nemo to be exact)
Santa Clause
Max (Wild Things)
Hercules

What do those all have in common?  Those are all the character outfits Jaxon had worn today before 10:47 am.  Seriously.

It is now 3:16 pm and he is in "day clothes."

The problem with wearing 25 outfits in one day, besides the laundry, is the fact that it takes 20 to 30 minutes to get the clothing on him just right with all the socks, belts, hats, masks, gloves, shirts, shorts, pants, and even matching underwear.  By the time we get all the details just the way he wants them, he decides he wants to be something else!

It drives me crazy sometimes!  But, of course, I am so blessed to have such a little cutie!


Oh, and we made a deal:  I won't yell at Jaxon if he won't yell at me.

Here's why:  My dad was a yeller, but not my mom.  And if she did yell, my brother and I knew things were serious!  Luckily, Devin's not a yeller.  I'm a yeller though, and I don't like it.

For one, since I yell often, when I really need to be serious, Jaxon doesn't know the difference because he's heard it before.  Does that make sense?  Like, what I was saying about how when my mom yelled, since it was so rare, it actually had an effect.

And two, Jaxon doesn't like it.  I mean like, it genuinely hurts his feelings.  It's not like he listens better when I yell either.  He just gets sad or mad about me raising my voice, not even about the words I actually said to him.  So, me raising my voice doesn't equate to any progress to the situation.  Sometimes if he yells at me and I catch myself before I yell at him, I'll ask him if he'd like it if I yelled at him and he very quickly realizes he doesn't want that so he will behave.  That's how much he doesn't like when I do it.

And for three, it's just not nice.  I believe yelling is parenting out of anger, not parenting with the guidance of the Spirit.

And four, I have rubbed off on Jaxon and he yells.  So, we made a deal this morning and so far, it has kept us both from yelling at times when we normally would have.  We'll see how long it lasts.