i despise it when the kids act up at pick up time. I have 3.5 yr old DCgirl who, when sees her mom at the door, will shriek, run all over the main level of the house, etc. All her her mother would call etc, she never puts her foot down. She would make a game of it saying "who is going to be ready first, you or I'? 'Do you want to fly into your boots/coat/hat?' 'who do you want to get you dressed, mommy or DCP?" i straight up said "no i can't, i am busy with the other kids, i can't play around right now." She never does this when her dad picks her up because it's rare that he picks her up so she behaves well for him. She only started doing this a few weeks ago, and i got sick of it quick, pick ups here taking like 15min!. I saw that her mother would not control her child so i did- i warned DCgirl that was going to go on a time out if she did not stop misbehaving. She would twist and writhe and cry and pull out all the tricks- mom would let it go but i put my foot down hard last week. I was frustrated and out of breath from trying to catch her and dress her as mom just stood there impatiently saying to the kid "come on, we gotta go to your sisters ballet!" That didn't help because the kid continued to wiggle herself out of my arms and almost knocked me over. Without a word, i placed the child on timeout. I leaned down in front of her and explained why she got a time out. At that point i didn't care if mom was in a hurry to go to the other kid's ballet, if they had to go out for dinner, or whatever. I was pissed but she did her time, then i got her dressed and off they went. Everyday since then, around the time her mom is expected, i warn her that mommy is coming soon and she must behave and get her coat on and go when mommy gets here or else she will get a time out. It has worked in the most part since....except
This past Monday, despite my warnings just a few minutes prior, she started behaving like that again. This time i did not give her a chance to get out of hand. As soon as i saw her try to make a run for it i stopped her, looked her in the eye and said "put your coat on now because it is time to go, or else you WILL get a time out'. Her mom said nothing, but the kid got fressed and off they went. Baby steps LOL but it's working!