Summer

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Story Time at the Library

Story time at the library was more than frustrating today.
On the way to the library I find myself going over the way we should act with Lily. No yelling, sit on the rug during the story, don't climb all over the librarian, you know the norm! Lily agrees and repeats it all back to me so I know she understands.
We get to the library to discover it is all about Dinosaurs today. Yeah Lily's favorite so it should be a great day, right. She will sit attentively and listen to the story, right. NOPE! Not two minutes into the story time the librarian has Lily in front of her and says maybe you would rather sit in mommy's lap. (because she was trying to climb all over the librarian.) So I have her come to me and sit in the floor next to me, but she can't see. She promises me she will sit still on the rug during the remainder of the story so I allow her to go back up to the rug with the other kids. A few minutes later I realize she is playing along the walls where they have flowers painted. I think to myself ," at least she is not being disruptive" and in an effort to pick my battles I don't say anything. A few moments after that I realize she is playing with the librarians buttons and name tag while she is trying to read. The librarian doesn't acknowledge her, but Lily does not lose interest she continues now playing with the books and the white board. That was it. I walk up there with Thomas in one hand, who by the way is screaming because his bottle is not warm enough, and try to get Lily to come with me so she is no longer disruptive. But she has another idea, she is not going. She plants it on the floor and shakes her head no with a look on her face "I want to see you make me in front of all these people". I give in because I know I can not make her do anything at this point. We finish the story mostly sitting and listening, but then it is time to leave. Except Lily is not ready to leave. So she stands her ground in the middle of the Children's center at the library (thank goodness we were in the Children's area so I was not so concerned about her yelling). I tell her I am leaving and she says NO! So I turn and go to check out the books, without her. She thinks I am leaving so finally follows screaming "I don't want to go, I don't want to". We get to the car and in our seats and then she asks if we are going to lunch with our friends. We weren't because some of the mom's had other obligations, but she didn't know that. So I decided to use this as a opportunity to show her we only get to do fun things when we behave. So I tell her no we are not because we did not behave during story time. She begins to scream, I am surprised someone did not think I was killing her! I ask her if she understands why we can not go eat and play with our friends and she tells me because she did not sit and listen to the story and she bothered the librarian. SO SHE DOES UNDERSTAND!!! So why does she do this. She continues to scream most of the way home, which is ok because now she is taking a great nap!
I would not be surprised if we were asked not to return to story time!

2 comments:

  1. Okay, so I totally missed most of this and I was there! I did notice that you left very abruptly. To add though, I have left with Colton crying and my almost near tears as well, actually a few months back. Just keep coming and she will learn how it all works, I promise. She is just very into stories (and the flowers!). Big hugs and enjoy naptime!!

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  2. Aww hang in there, but good for you for holding your ground with a consequence. Its so hard when we have to get on to them! I nearly cry every time I have to get on one mine! I do remember that day Brandie left...

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