bitch slapped

Last night M and I were taking a bath. All of a sudden M leans over and smacks me in the face. Hard. Actually, really hard. It's the first time she's ever hit me so I was taken a bit aback. I dug deep and very calmly told her NOT to hit mommy, and how that HURT mommy, and we DON'T hit each other. And she looked at me, said "yeaahh mommy" and hit me again.

OK, the kid has game. I got me some game, too. Game on, kid.

Time Out. I grab the dripping M and am heading into the time out zone. We use a baby gate in her room for this, so after a couple minutes, I went to the other side of the gate and again said M, please do not hit mommy. Mommy does not hit M, and M does not hit mommy. If you hit mommy, you will go to time out. Blah, blah, wasted breath, and so on - average time out (read: futile) discussions. But then, I said again, M does not hit mommy. M again says "yeah, mommy", and WHACK. Repeat this scenario five more times with five more time outs. And then once more. All the while she is laughing hysterically.

I literally had no idea what else to do so I poured myself a large glass of red wine and put her to bed. I was whacked into submission. Or stupidity. Or both.

I don't even know what I really think about using the whole time out theory - if that is really a useful philosophy or not - in fact, I am unsure whether I have a philosophy at all.

advice welcome....