MoMo

With all the difficulties of taking care of child in his terrible twos, I find myself desperate trying to redirect what I would think as inappropriate behavior.  Apparently, me saying "don't do that, you'll get hurt," or "stop it, that's not nice," mean nothing to my two-year old son.  Time outs or sending him to his room has been effective for a while...but as I use it more often, it becomes less and less effective.

I've been trying to keep myself from yelling at home, partly because I feel guilty most of the time.  But most of the time, the guilt is overridden by this overwhelming feeling of frustration.  And so the cycle goes on.  In my culture (Filipino), it was not uncommon to scare kids with some imaginary monster character or "MoMo" to curb their behavior.  I know my mom used to tell us that if we're bad, that the witch will come and get us.  In my desperate attempt to feed my son his lunch a couple of days ago, I told him that if he doesn't eat, the "MoMo" will come and get him.  To make it even more believable, I hung a blue glove on our dining room window.  That got his attention, and sure enough, ate the nutella sandwich and banana that I made for him.

Now, every time we eat, he always refers to the "MoMo" watching him.  Though it's been effective the last few days, I fear that someday when it sinks in, that it will cause more problems (i.e. nightmares, night terrors, etc.), and that everything will practically scare him.  I was telling my hubby today that I wish I could skip this phase, or fast forward to the next.  But in retrospect, do I really want to miss anything that my son goes through, no matter how difficult they may be?  I think I just need more time to understand or find better ways to cope.  I just wish that all these "terrible two" behaviors will be over soon.