Desperate Times...

Is it completely unheard of to ground your child from cereal? Maybe. That's just the sort of unheard of punishment you'll find here at our house when I am at my wit's end with one of my children. Specifically when Hunter is having a meltdown because I won't allow him to have cereal for lunch when he just had a bowl not even 2 hours ago for breakfast, that is the first threat that happened to spill out of my mouth. "If you mention cereal one more time..." What was his response? "CCEERRREEAAALLL!!!!!"
Did I regret it as soon as it was said? Of course. They eat cereal and only cereal every morning for breakfast. I knew that Hunter wouldn't suddenly become logical and avoid further mention of the subject. Self-control has never been one of Hunter's strengths (note he is still having meltdowns at age 5 in 3 weeks.) So the punishment had been dealt. This meant I had to figure out something else to feed my picky eater for the duration of the sentence..2 days. This morning when he asked for cereal, I reminded him of his restriction. He immediately crumpled into a heap of sobbing mess on the floor. I sent him to his bed. Trevor instinctively knew there would be trouble this morning when Hunter emerged from his room before 6 a.m. After some screaming, yelling and crying about cereal he finally calmed down. I went in to give him his breakfast options. He started to crack when I mentioned the first few but when I got to Pop-tart, he happily selected that and hopped off his bed. Was it the best breakfast choice? Definitely not. But what's a harried mom to do? She does whatever she can to survive all the challenges the kids throw at her multiple times daily. At least that's how this mom handles things! Someday my kids will do the same irrational things to their kids. And then I will giggle in a sinister way and know that justice has been served! Just kidding!