I understood the first night because everything was too new. They had been very young the last time we’d stayed in a hotel with them. Young enough that they this might as well have been their first time staying overnight in a hotel.
I’d hoped things would get better the second night and they did, kind of. Still, there was a lot of goofiness and fidgeting and the like. I remained patient with them and eventually, they quieted down and fell asleep.
Tonight, they were worse than either of the previous two nights. Almost completely out of control. They were loud and bouncing around and banging into the wall and being way more than just excited. I warned them on multiple occasions to settle down and each time, they ended up just as rowdy as before. There seemed to be no end in sight. I gave them a final warning that punishment was imminent.
They ignored me and I waited as long as I could before I finally decided a message needed to be sent. They received it loud and clear. I haven’t specified what it would be, only that they would both be punished tomorrow for their behavior tonight. I had no levers immediately available, so I opted for the ones I’d have with the dawn of a new day.
Kids test and test and test and test again. They do this because on some level, they perceive the rules changing as they grow up- their freedoms increase as our trust in their judgment increases. So they test old rules to see if they’ve maybe, just maybe, been relaxed. They test so much that they know when a parent is serious about a threatened punishment, and the behave accordingly.
I suspect that tonight wasn’t entirely about testing per say, as much as it was about not being able to reign themselves in and understanding when they’d gone to far. But it afforded me the chance to remind them that I say what I mean, and mean what I say. Hopefully, they remember it for the next time.