Thank goodness for baby steps of progress -- they carry us through! You're doing a wonderful job with Rita. Trust your instincts and stick to your guns.

Yeah for victory!

Glad the timer helped. For Katya, turning that dial was a much more concrete threat than just saying, "two more minutes" or five more minutes, whatever.

Have fun at the circus! We took Katya to the circus in St. Petersburg and it was pretty incredible. Quite unlike an American circus. I wonder if it will be the same with the traveling version.

You will learn some amazing tools for your parenting tool box... way to go mama

You got some amazing comments on that last post... and it sounds like it's working now. Yay! I forgot to mention that I increase the timer too if they don't stay put. Sometimes they would end up sitting for 15 min... but after once or twice of that they started listening. I don't have to do that any more, in fact we rarely use the timeout chair any more.

In your copious free time, add some more reading material to your pile: Water for Elephants - it's about a traveling circus. Great book!

great to hear the victories! the hard work now will pay off now some and lots later!

Sounds like things are slowly getting better. You've done an amazing job sticking to your "plan." :)

Glad everyone is feeling better, too.

I just linked to your blog from Carey's blog and am so glad that I did! We just brought home three boys from Russia two weeks ago and have had some stressful time-ins. I am soaking up anything I can read because he has also had some respect issues and I anticipate other issues. I really appreciate that you are open and honest about your struggles so it will help the rest of us with our struggles. Good luck and THANKS!
Sincerely,
Darla

Oops, I guess I didn't explain. Our boys are 7, 6 and 4 (almost 5) and it is mainly the 7 year old having issues.
Thanks again!
d

Oh Tricia, after we visit other people at their homes, Sergei always used to say that he wanted them to be live with them rather than me and Bill; it was because he thought they would not have any rules like at our home. My family and friends always respond that "if you think your Mama and Papa are tough, we are tougher!" It was a little frustrating for us at first but he stopped after about 9 months of our friends and family giving him that line!

We have done the time ins and time outs. We set the timer for 1 minute for his age - Sergei rarely sat still for long (he was 9 at the time). Finally, we just started taking away privileges - it worked great. The boy misses his electronics too much so he generally behaves since that is what we take away!

Good luck to you! You are doing great. I know how hard it is. It does get easier!

Myra

Sounds like improvement! Good job mommy and daddy! Tell Rita we love mac and cheese and hot dogs too! :)