The Naughty Mat

Grams recently spent nine days in San Antonio at the home of Our Little Princess. As I'm sure you'll recall, I was there for the birth of Baby Sister. This gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Our Little Princess.

The Naughty Mat

Now, as her Grams it is my opinion that, like Mary Poppins, she is practically perfect in every way. But, as with any child, from time-to-time her parents must offer a little instruction and discipline. They use a "time out" system and since she's two-years-old, time out lasts two minutes. They use a kitchen timer and a "naughty mat."

The naughty mat sits in the hallway right at the entrance to the kitchen. It actually works amazingly well. I didn't think that a time out would actually work for a 2-year-old but it does, with the possible exception of when Grams is in residence.

One night just as we were sitting down for dinner, Our Little Princess was sent to the naughty mat. Honestly, I don't remember what the infraction was, but I do remember that she was told to stop doing something and didn't stop. After she had been told a couple of times by both of her parents, she was sent to the naughty mat for her two minute time out. Now, usually when she's sent to the naughty mat, she just walks over and sits down, but on this occasion she refused to go on her own so Katy picked her up, carried her the few feet to the mat and plopped her down. As mom turned her back to set the timer, we all heard Our Little Princess say quite firmly "I WANT MY GRAMS!"

Our Little Princess

Mom walked back to the table and sat down while we all tried not to laugh. Katy said "She might as well have said 'Id like to speak to my attorney'." At this point we all gave up trying to hold it in and just busted out laughing.

There was also a second incident which again took place at the dining table. Again, I don't recall the specific infraction, but it quickly escalated into Our Little Princess having a full blown meltdown in her seat at the table. This time her dad asked, "Do you want to go to your naughty mat?" We were all amused when she responded "Yes!" and got up, walked over to her naughty mat, and sat down. As we all sat at the table slightly in shock, it suddenly got very quiet. When we looked over at her she was methodically removing her shoes and socks. After that she just sat there quietly for a couple of minutes. When her mom asked if she was ready to come back to the table, she quietly came back to the table and ate her dinner without further incident.

I must say, it's so much more fun to watch my kids deal with their kids than it was to deal with my own kids.