Yeah, I probably didn't have to remind her. As to why I did it? I got to see D on a Friday afternoon, and I got to pick her up from school in the "normal" way. In the past, Friday was always OUR day (we work half days on Friday here, and I always picked her up from school. It was special to me). Having that again for a day was actually nice.
Played Champions of Midgaard for the first time. It was a pretty cool game. I won, surprisingly enough.
The punishment talk is because it was apparently bad enough that W was getting ready to discipline (grounding). I was trying to be supportive. I didn't word it as "you should" but it was a little bit past "this is what I do."
I don't think W really knows our child, anymore. She's changed a lot in the last few months, and W wasn't there for the changes. W's parenting style can be summed up as "yelling and spanking." That hasn't worked very well with D in the past (she has her mother's temper, and a contrary streak) and I sincerely doubt it will work any better with the kid she's turning into.
If anyone wants to offer me any advice on this, I'm all ears. Here's the advice I gave her:
"She does well if you talk to her calmly. If you look at her and count, she'll settle down by 2, usually. She's been spanked once in three months. She WANTS to be good, you just have to get through to her. She also has to be able to run a little wild so she feels free. If you give her independence, then she'll settle down. And then you can threaten to take that away if you need to. She loves her friends here and she WILL be good if I tell her she won't be able to play with them if she doesn't do better."
