Crime and Punishment

Or, aka, Meanest Mom Ever...

I don't know, you can be the judge, I guess. Yes, I'm going to allow you to judge me, but just this once, okay?

Tyler has been kind of a monkey lately. Not a one of those generally chill kinds, like a gorilla or orangutan. More like a spider monkey. He's up, he's down, he's jumping, falling, rolling, flopping...You get the picture. This is mostly fine, but he's also combining climbing and jumping...off furniture. I'm not loving the idea of him jumping off stuff at the playground and such, either, but the furniture jumping is a big no-no in our house. 

It came to a head these past couple of days. There was jumping off Vincent's bed yesterday. Warning given. Then, jumping off the futon last night. Action taken: sitting him on the floor of the kitchen while I washed dishes, which he protested, and resulted in him sitting in the bathtub, while I talked to him about the importance of not jumping off furniture. He didn't like the idea of possibly getting wet with his clothes on. I can't believe I'm admitting all this. The truth is, I didn't really know how to handle this. At the end of the night, he promised not to jump off anymore furniture. I didn't think this would be a promise he could keep, but, again, I wasn't sure how to deal with this.

This morning, when the kids should have been getting dressed for the day, Vincent comes yelling, "Tyler jumped off his bed!" Okay, his bed is only half a foot off the ground. Clearly, pretty safe. BUT, it's also not made for jumping on. He's still in a toddler bed, but new beds are coming this week. That's the biggest dilemma of all, the new beds. We're afraid he'll jump off one of those, which is a couple feet off the ground. 

What to do? 

My only solution was to take the bed away from him all together. Which, I did. I put his bed frame and mattress in the closet (it didn't quite fit, so it's sticking out), vacuumed the kids' rug and floor very well, and set up a "bed" on the floor for Tyler to sleep. Yes, yes I did. At first, he looked at it and was kind of happy. Then, he actually got into "bed" and was very upset. Very, very upset. He cried, and cried, and pleaded for his bed back. I did my best to calm him, and explained to him why he has no bed. I didn't back down, but I wasn't mean about it (even though you may think it was mean of me to take the bed away). I gave him lots of hugs and kisses, and he's now asleep...still on the floor.