I swear, Marek can be very sweet, but today he is a demon. After I put Lukas down for a nap, I got a couple of phone calls (not even long ones), and he started acting up. After he hit me in the stomach and answered my reprimand with some sneering (nonsense) backtalk, I sent him to time out in the dining room. Within a few seconds, he was giggling and kicking the wall, so I upped the time-out to "room time-out", which is a longer time-out in his room with the door closed. Within a few minutes of his being upstairs, I heard banging noises and went up to investigate. He has pulled all the books off his bookshelf and thrown them around his room, dumped all his puzzles out on the floor, basically trashed his room.

So for that, I told him he was getting a spanking and would have to clean up the mess. I sent him to the potty first, then gave him 3 swats and left him up there to start cleaning up.

WHY is he like this?

I've been having similar problems with Joshua lately. He's answering me back in a ridiculous way, flat out not listening, and laughing at reprimands and even the butt smack he got the other day.

I'm sorry it was a rough day.

I am so sorry Rudi! I hope today was better for you guys.