…and here’s your bill, kid.
I haven’t looked into this, but I need to. Do you think I can take out some kind of insurance policy specifically to cover the damages that my two year old causes? I don’t know why it shocks me still when I find something destroyed in the house or anywhere for that matter, but it still does. Somehow in some way, Destructo Boy is involved.
Yesterday as I went with my older child to to the potty to help her flip on the light, Destructo Boy came running after me a few seconds later. He had a look on his face that even alarmed me a bit. In this quiet but very urgent voice he said, “Oh no. Come look Mama. Look at the tv.” I figured he probably sat on the tv remote and pushed something to undo his tv show, but he was very insistent that I come look right away.
I walked with him to the television, and to my absolute horror…
I looked at Destructo Boy. My mouth dropped open, and I couldn’t even get a sound out of my mouth. I looked back at the tv.
Destructo Boy kept repeating, “I will say sorry to Daddy. Don’t be mad Mama. I said I’m sorry.” On the ground lied my kid’s plastic Pat, Handy Manny’s hammer and not far from it, Handy Manny’s tool box.
“Why did you do this?” I don’t know why I ask why questions. The kid has a lot of words, but he can’t answer a why question.
“Because I did.”
“Why did you hit the tv.”
“Because I bammed it.”
I didn’t know what to do. Should I yell? Should I put him in time out? Should I snap Pat in half and dramatically throw all of Handy Manny’s tools into the garbage in front of Destructo Boy to make a point? Sometimes I hate parenting; the hardest thing for me to do is to come up with an age-appropriate punishment on the fly. With my two year old, if I walk away and come back with a well-thought out plan, the moment is probably lost. What to do… what to do… I didn’t know what to do, so I said in my scariest calm voice, “You are in big trouble, Stinker. Sit down.” I sat the boy down in front of the broken tv and had him look at the crack, as he sobbed hysterically.
I grabbed my camera. I took a picture and emailed it to hubby at work while Destructo Boy got on the telephone and explained to Daddy what happened which basically was just a retelling that he was sorry that he bammed the tv. When hubby got the photo attachment, his response was this horrified, “Ohhhh…” I heard him draw out with a long breath so as to keep in the expletives. The kids were listening in on the speaker phone.
Destructo Boy was sobbing uncontrollably, and he kept saying that he was sorry. I knew he was sorry. I also knew that deep down he wasn’t being malicious so I didn’t see any sense in yelling at him to make him feel any worse than he already did. He wouldn’t let us turn on the tv at all to survey the damage because the big ‘ole cracked image sends him into tears. There is no doubt that he feels remorse. We have no plans to replace that television just yet. The kids will learn from this, and it may mean a while without television. I think my calm stern demeanor was far scarier than if I went completely ballistic on the kid.
I keep threatening to tally up the cost of repairs and replacements and present my child someday with a bill. I won’t of course, but at least the thought of doing so keeps me from throttling the boy sometimes.
How would you have handled this situation?
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i was always more scared of mom and her quiet look of disappointment than dad’s explosive yelling. i knew dad would get it out of his system and take us to mcdonald’s for a happy meal later, but mom would just continue to feel disappointed. still kills me today.
That has actually happened to us several years ago, my son is 8 now but when he was 3 he was into Bob the Builder… especially the yellow bulldozer, One early Saturday morning my son felt the need to throw the heavy yellow bulldozer toy at the 42′ Plasma Pioneer TV, needless to say there was a huge hole in the middle of the TV.
We reacted pretty much the same as you and your husband did, we were in shock I think the rest of the day, I was suprisly speechless and could only tell him to play elsewhere in the house for the rest of the day… since that incident toys have never been allowed into the living rooms and has always been in the “designated” toy area of the house … were there is not much they can break or destroy.
Oh my! That exact thing happened to us a week after Thanksgiving, except the weapon of choice was a wooden Thomas the Tank engine. My two year old son already broke an iphone 5 days prior, so he was on a roll. We just now replaced the tv, after weeks of training, “We do not touch the tv.” Maybe you can submit your picture to http://www.sh*tmykidsruined.com or at least feel you are not alone.
Christy, I did submit the picture, and it was picked (sadly). http://www.shitmykidsruined.com/2011/01/10/damn-you-handy-manny-hammer/