Do NOT mess with The Geej.

For some time now, one of the disciplinary techniques I've been using is the traditional "time out." But instead of calling it that, I say, "Do you need to go and be angry/sad/whiny by yourself?" The answer is always "no," of course. But when she has to go be by herself, we talk about why, and then let her decide when she's ready to say she's sorry and explain to me why she's in trouble. She's verbal enough for this, and it seems to be effective for us.

Then, there are her babies.

Apparently, they're ALWAYS getting in trouble and having to be by themselves. And, The Geej being the world's biggest tattle-tale, loves nothing more than coming to tell me about the exploits and wrongdoings of the babies and also about the punishment smackdown she's putting on them.

Typical conversation:

Geej: Simon bit Abby.

Me: Oh NO! Biting isn't nice.

Geej: Needs to be by himself.

Me: Yes he does!

Geej: Wanna talk to him?

Me: Sure. Simon, we don't bite our friends. It hurts their bodies, and it isn't nice. You need to go be by yourself and think about why biting is wrong. When you're ready to talk about it and say you're sorry, you can come out.

Geej: (with a VERY self-satisfied grin on her face) C'mon Simon. Need to go be by yourself.

The result of this is that, usually by bed time, every baby has hit/pushed/pulled the hair of/bitten or in some other way harmed every other baby, and they're scattered around the house, by themselves, sitting against a wall, sometimes facing a wall, and sometimes in closets or under beds.

Tonight, I opened up the kitchen pantry and found this:

From left to right, Baby, Abby, and Simon (nekkid as a jaybird, by the way), all having to be by themselves. I think this happened this morning while we were getting ready for school/work. There's really no telling what they did to warrant this level of punishment. All I know is they'd been in there all day.

I'm totally calling CPS on her ass.