Monotony

Olivia brought her first spelling list home last night. She was in a mood as we sat down to work on this list.

Her teacher had sent home a sheet of paper on which Liv was supposed to write her spelling words three times each. She’d also brought home a red pencil and a blue pencil with which she was supposed to write her words, using a regular pencil for the third copy of her words.

By the time we got home last night to sit down and write out these words, Olivia had already eaten two servings of mandarin oranges and an ice cream cone at my mom’s. Maybe the sugar was the reason for her nuttiness.

Or maybe…she was just being Olivia.

Whatever the case, she thought everything was hilarious. She laughed when I told her which word to write. She laughed when I told her to write it so her teacher could read it. She laughed when I’d erase a particularly messy or incorrectly spelled word.

I tried nagging her. I tried warning her that she was on the verge of a timeout and having her tablet taken away for the rest of the evening.

Nothing worked. She laughed at everything.

Tom came out and yelled at her. She laughed at him.

I finally just started saying each word in as monotone a voice as I could muster. When she’d act up, I’d repeat the word, still monotone. Once the word was written correctly and legibly, I’d say blandly, “Write it again.”

I started going this when we were on the third copy of the fifth word. I continued it through the rest of the 25 words on her list.

And what do you know? It worked. My non-reaction to her ‘hilarity’ made her stop with the hilarity. She wrote the words. I’d sometimes wordlessly take the pencil away from her, erase the word, repeat the word to her and tell her to write it again, reminding her every so often, still very monotone, to write it so her teacher could read it.

She was being a lunatic because she wanted a reaction out of me.

When the reaction went away, the lunacy went away.

Who knows if this method will work tomorrow? But the fact that it worked last night meant that we all survived and her spelling list made its way back to Mrs. K this morning.

I’m calling it a win in this battle called parenthood.