Monkey Hear, Monkey Say

Background: Drew gets sent to his room a lot. We generally put him in there to cool down, because he has quite a temper. Sometimes we put him in there if he's disobedient. For instance he's doing something I don't want him to be doing, I tell him to stop, he doesn't stop, I tell him to go to his room. When he has completed the sentence (as in punishment, not string of words) I sit down with him and we talk about what he was doing, why I sent him to his room, how I expect him to behave. Given the frequency of trips to his room every day, I wonder at the actual effectiveness of this method. But at least it keeps him out of trouble for a few minutes while he's in there.

Yesterday morning I had sent Drew to his room for some reason. I went into the laundry room to switch the load from washer to dryer. Owen followed me to help.* About thirty seconds later, Drew came walking into the laundry room asking if he could help. Before I could even say anything, Owen started speaking for me: "Drew. Did I say you could come out of your room? Why did I send you to your room? What did you do? You go back in there. One. Two. Three." He said all this with no pauses for Drew to respond. I was trying so hard not to bust out laughing, feeling grateful that I could hid my face behind the washing machine lid so they couldn't see it.

*I love it when Owen helps me put laundry in the washer and dryer. I hand him the clothes to put in, and with every item I hand him he says, "Oh, thank you!" Like I'm doing him the favor.