Scapegoat.

Today, Reese and Quincy were playing and got in a fight over a toy.

Reese bit Quincy on the leg. Bad. (seriously, she's 4 1/2, what the heck?!) I saw the whole thing happen. Quincy came to me crying. To get her to calm down and use words, I asked her, "Ohhh What HAPPENED?" She sloooooowly looked at her bite mark and looked at Reese, then looked at the toys. "Umm... Daddy bite my leg, Mommy!"

Huh?

I said, "no, Daddy is at work. Tell me what happened to your leg." Then Quincy said, "Grandma bite my leg, Mommy!" "No, Quincy. It wasn't Grandma, either. She lives far away. Did Reese bite your leg?" Reese then came running to her side and gave her a hug. Quincy then finally admitted that it was Reese. Reese knows better than to bite. I sent her to time out. Quincy burst into tears. Hysterical. Fell to the floor. "NOOOOOOooooooo!!!! Mommy, it was CORBIN. He bite my leeeeeeeeggggg! I want to play with Reese, don't send her to time out!!!"

I'm glad that even though they fight sometimes, they are best friends. I didn't think it was fair to take away Quincy's friend when she didn't do anything wrong. But Reese definitely needed a consequence for biting her sister's leg! What's a mom to do? I decided that Reese's consequence for biting Quincy would be to do service for her sister instead. She spent the next 20 minutes helping her get dressed (in quite the outfit) making her bed, helping Q brush her teeth, and putting away some toys. I think it was a good solution.
Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I am doing.

Today I guess I got lucky.