silent treatment

Did you ever give anyone the silent treatment? I remember being ignored by a girl I was friends with in junior high. We would be fine and then she would suddenly stop speaking to me. There was never any explanation. She would simply act as though I wasn't there. It would bother me and I would try to talk to her only to be ignored. Needless to say, our friendship didn't last past that year. I wasn't interested in giving someone that kind of power over me and I knew better than to stay in that kind of friendship.
So it is with trepidation that I admit that I pulled out my silent treatment skills this morning. It wasn't done to hurt someone. It was done to move my child towards obedience. I was hoping that it would succeed where other disciplinary tactics have failed. If there is one thing that Truett loves, it is being noticed and having attention so it seemed like a good way to go.
He has been struggling with getting dressed in the morning. He will ignore my directions and roll around on the floor or jump onto his bed. And if I leave the room to do something else, he screams and cries and throws himself on me, begging me to please stay with him. Yesterday I told him that I wasn't going to sit and wait for him; that he would have one shot to obey. I reminded him again this morning and he chose to take his time and not listen. So I walked out and told him that he could come downstairs and join the family once he was dressed.
What followed was a half hour of Truett screaming at me, hitting me, pushing over chairs and throwing himself onto me. I calmly peeled him off of me and ignored him while I fed Caia and ate my breakfast. It was not a pleasant 1/2 hour. Eventually, Truett wandered upstairs, got dressed, and came back down as though nothing had happened. We then had to go and have a talk about how he had behaved and then proceeded to have a good day together.
Did I make the right choice? I don't know. But that is the thing about being a mom. Most of the time, you are making it up as you go. I can borrow from the things my own mom did or talk to my friends about stuff but I'm the one dealing with it in the moment. And sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a tactic that works and a tactic that works and helps to create better character in your child and in you. I will never use the silent treatment on my kids as a way to make them feel bad. But I won't allow my three-year old to set the pace for my day. It is a rough road and I can only do my best and trust God to cover my failings.