Consistency counts

Last week Elisabeth and I went to an art museum. I was pushing the stroller and allowing her to walk. She saw a bench, got excited, and ran to it to climb and sit. I walked over to her and explained that if she ran again and didn't stop when I spoke to her, that she would have to sit strapped in the stroller. Several times during our museum visit, she again got excited and started to run. As soon as I said her name (and I didn't say it loudly), she stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me. I commended her for listening and stopping, and she continued by walking instead.

It was a great reminder to me that Elisabeth knew that I would follow through on what I had said, and so she was very careful to keep up her end of the deal. If I gave her repeated "warnings" [read: empty threats], she would know that I didn't mean it and would go on with her behavior. Knowing that one infraction would put her in the stroller made her attentive to her behavior, and made my job easy.