Disciplining Other People's Children

I was watching my brother Lowell's two boys the other night so Lowell and Rae could get some Christmas shopping done.

We were all have a great time, the boys more than anyone. I went in the toy room and you could not see the floor, the boys were jumping on the couch, and screaming at the top of their lungs.

I asked the boys not to scream and they all complied with my request, except Lowell Jr. I had to ask him at least two more times until I realized he wasn't going to quit because he wasn't taking me seriously. After the third or fourth scream I picked him up and put him in time-out.

I usually leave a kid in time-out one minute for their age. But since this was not my kid I decided I'd better just leave him there for one minute, I didn't need a full tantrum.

After a minute I sat down on the foot stool in front of Jr. and asked him why he got put in time-out. I like to make sure they understand I'm not trying to be mean there is a reason they have to sit in the chair.

So I asked Jr. if he understood why he was there, he looked at me and said, "Meow". I asked him again and got the same answer, "Meow". I told him I would check back when he was ready to talk.

Every thirty seconds I asked him again, and again I got, "meow". I had a hard time keeping a straight face.

Five or ten minutes later my brother showed up. I got a little panicky because people really don't like it when someone else is disciplining their children and I didn't know if I was going to tick off my brother.

I explained why Jr. was in the chair instead of playing with the boys and when Jr. saw his parents he got excited and tried to jump down from the chair and run to them for a pardon. Lowell stopped his son and told him he wasn't done with his time-out yet. Jr. turned to me and started talking to me.

I was so proud of my brother, and relieved I didn't offend him. I'm pretty sure all my nieces and nephews think I am the mean aunt, and I think I'm fine with that.