Standing Against the Wall

Dao gets to stand against the wall quite often nowadays for his misbehaving. I usually give him three chances to cooperate. If he refused I would make him stand against the wall. Seeing him standing and crying breaks my heart, but I have to do it. At two he needs to be disciplined. In the past two years, I have failed getting him to listen without making him standing against the wall. I tried to talk to him and also tried to minimize the punishment, but it was been really hard.

Once I got him to get still against the wall, I tried to explain to him what he had done wrong. He seemed to be responsive. Here’s how the conversation went recently:

Me: “Dao co ngoan khong (Are you going to be good)?”
Dao: “Yeah”
Me: “Dao xin loi mommy (Say sorry to your mom)”
Dao: “Sorry mommy.” Still crying and went on, “Dao muon di (I want to go).”
Me: “Dao muon di dau (Where do you want to go)?”
Dao: “Di vong vong (go around).” Before I could dismiss him, he stepped toward me and gave me a hug. He got me.

Labor Day weekend, we were at my sister’s house and Dao acted him when we tried to brush his teeth in the morning. He was kicking and biting hard on the brush. I made him stand against the wall while Eric stood and watched. Ten minutes later after I let Dao go, Eric came up to me with two plastic knives in his hands. He looked at me with his red, teary eyes and said, “I saw what you did.” He was about to fight me for what I did to his cousin.