Chapter 8 - The Closet Started as a “Calm-Down Space”
There had always been a hallway storage closet.
When Megan and I were children, it held:
vacuum,
Christmas decorations,
coats.
Gloria converted it after Lizzy began having tantrums.
At first:
pillows.
Blanket.
Battery light.
Stuffed animals.
She called it:
“the quiet corner.”
A calm-down space.
Not automatically wrong.
Some children like enclosed spaces when overwhelmed.
The first problem was:
the door.
Gloria added a latch high enough Lizzy could not reach.
She told herself it kept:
the closet door from swinging.
Maybe at first.
Then one evening Lizzy threw:
peas
on the floor.
Gloria sent her inside.
Lizzy came out.
Gloria latched:
the door.
Five minutes.
Then ten.
The behavior stopped.
That became:
reinforcement.
Next time:
twenty minutes.
Then whenever Gloria felt Lizzy was:
“out of control.”
Eventually the quiet corner became:
punishment room.
Gloria later admitted she never intended to leave Lizzy there for:
hours
in the beginning.
Control rarely announces its final destination.
People move the line.
Then normalize:
May you like
where it lands.
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