This week, me and Daddy discovered something about Caleb. He gets really affected when Daddy puts on his stern voice to speak to him. Daddy doesn't need to scream or shout. Just a stern voice and it's enough.
Just the other day Daddy and Caleb were playing and Caleb reached out to fling Daddy's glasses to the floor. Daddy got upset and said very sternly to him "Caleb! I've told you not to do that right!" (Daddy had previously told him not to fling away his glasses.) Well, the reaction was immediate. Caleb froze, kept his head down and looked at the floor and before we knew it, his mouth curved down and tears started streaming down from his face and he said very softly "sorry Daddy". No tantrums, nothing. Just silent tears.
(Wah, I see already, I feel a bit heartache for my son. He really look very poor thing.) Of course Daddy said he quickly softened his tone when he saw how affected Caleb was.
And this morning, I was trying to get Caleb changed and cleaned up to go to school. He wanted to play with his toys and kept turning his face away when I tried to clean his face. I put on my stern voice after a while and told him "Caleb! Mummy needs to clean your face! You're late for school already!" Ha! It had no effect on him. He continued squirming and playing with his toys. Then Daddy stepped in and said sternly "Caleb! Mummy needs to clean your face! Are you ready?! Immediately Caleb stopped squirming, looked cautiously at Daddy and quickly said "Yes." And let me clean him properly.
Me and Daddy were wondering what is it about Daddy that makes Caleb listen to him in an instant and not me??!! It's not like I give him lots of warnings and don't execute out any punishments. Actually, I'm the constant disciplinarian at home. When he misbehaves, I'll issue a warning and if he doesn't heed my warning, he knows for sure he'll go to the naughty corner. And so far, I'm the only one sending him to the naughty corner. Don't think Daddy ever had a chance to do it.
Or maybe it's coz whenever Daddy's home, he plays with him a lot and when there's a sudden change in his tone, it's obvious to Caleb that Daddy means business. We still can't figure it out but whatever it is, at least we know that I can be the daily disciplinarian and Daddy can be my point of escalation if things get out of hand.
