See That Cute Little Girl Down There in My Previous Post??? She Said I Must Beat Her.

Ok. So I have to give you a little culture lesson before I begin this story or I might get nasty comments and phone calls. In Ghana, they use the word 'beat' when they talk about spanking and disciplining children, etc. Granted, it is still sometimes hard to see, but it's their way of life, not mine. And part of adoption, especially international adoption, means you bring some of that back with you.

For the record, I never saw a child being disciplined {spanked, beaten, what-have-you} in anger. From what I observed, there were set punishments for certain crimes: late for school? a single swat on the hand.

So the other night I was putting Adjoa to bed. The process took nearly 2 hours. She was up every few minutes. A couple times to go potty, but every other time, she just didn't want to go to sleep. You know how it is.

Finally, I'm putting her back in bed and I give a nice, general threat because I'm such an awesome parent and there should be books written and lectures given regarding my break-through techniques that are oh so effective.

I said something like, "If you get out of bed again you are going to be in big trouble. It's time to sleep."

{To be fair to myself, I am certain a statement like that would have worked for me when I was a child - if I ever even got out of bed, that is. I was an angel! BTW my parents don't know how to comment so they'll never be able to refute that claim. Not that they would. Because I was.}

About 2 minutes after my vague threat, Adjoa comes walking into plain sight. When I spot her in the kitchen, she doesn't even take off running to her bedroom like a child in trouble should. Nope. She just gives me a big grin and laughs as I take her back to bed.

I ask if she needs to go potty.
No.
Does she need a drink of water?
No.
I ask what she needs in order to go to sleep.
She says "You must beat me."
Huh?
"You want mama to beat you?"
"Yes."
"How many times? Just once?"
"Yes."
"You want mama to beat you one time?"

{See how I keep asking because I can't believe this child is telling me I must beat her}

"Yes."
"And you will go to sleep if mama beats you?"
"Yes."
"Okay...."

I gave her a swat on the behind and put her in bed.

She started crying when I left the room, so I went back in and said, "I don't know why you are crying. You told mama to beat you."

She stopped crying and WENT TO SLEEP.

I told Lois about it and she laughed so hard. She said Adjoa knew she was being naughty and expected a beating because of it. Funny. I just hope we don't have to go through that every night.

Yeash.

Post script: We've had 2 nights in a row without any problems, and Adjoa hasn't asked for any more "beatings". What a relief! Of course, she hasn't been naughty again, either.