Sorting out Discipline

The moving schedule is getting tighter and tighter. Next Thursday is my last day at work and it seems like there are just too many friends to see and too much work to do to have it all happen. But it will, I know that.

Michael is in a stage of development where we're disciplining him more actively (more of a correction/redirect than physical discipline, of course). My mom was visiting this weekend, and the discussion came up of the discipline threat that worked in place of the actual discipline. For my husband and I it was the wooden spoon--it didn't need to be used, but just bringing it out and smacking it on the counter was enough to get our attention.

I also recall my grandfather's gibberish phrase--I've always wanted to trace a meaning rooted in a language--like Yiddish? (he had German roots), but no success. The phrase was "socktemelocktemeh chickamelahdemedeh!" , meaning "you're about to be in a heap of trouble if you don't stop what you're doing." Sometimes he would just shorten it and say "socktemelocktemeh". It sure did work on us.