Lesson learned?

There are times as a parent, that you a.  get to the absolute end of your tether, and b.  want to convey a meaningful lesson to your child(ren).  With Will, it was "stop bugging your baby sister in the car seat next to you - she just stopped crying and went to sleep!"  We had threatened a few times to make him get out and walk.  One hot afternoon, Nate and I reached the end of the tether, and Nate pulled the car over and grabbed Will out of his car seat, then deposited him on the sidewalk.  I got out to walk with him as I thought it might be too much to expect an almost 3 year old to walk home (about a block) alone.  Nate did intend to go with him, and have me drive, but I was already out of the car, so I pulled Will along with me, refusing his pleas to carry him.  When we reached our building and the air conditioned elevator, I (kindly I'm sure... NOT) asked him if he was hot, to which he replied, still crying, "Yeeeessss."  "Are you tired?"  "Yes".  "Do you like walking instead of riding in the car?" "No".  "Should you leave Finley alone when she is sleeping?"  "Yes."  Lesson learned, and we were able to refer to it many times on future drives.

The other night I was in the middle of bedtime, trying to simultaneously feed Tyson, and supervise the other two getting teeth brushed, jammies on, and prayers.  I am sure there were stuffed animals to be picked up from the bedroom floor as well during all this.  I had accomplished enough that Finley was in her bed, ready to say prayers, so we began and after a phrase or two, I heard something that definitely did not sound like sitting quietly in bed with arms folded.  She had climbed out and was playing with the balloon we brought home from a birthday party that afternoon (which had already put bedtime much later than was desired).  I reached the end of my "nice", and grabbed the balloon and the closest implement with which to pop it.  The noise jarred Tyson, who started to cry, and shocked Finley, who stared at me for a few seconds before bursting into heartbroken tears, waving her hands, and running to collect the pieces of the balloon, and calling for "Daddddddddyyyyyyyy".  She just kept showing him the broken pieces and sobbing as if the world was coming to an end.  Will also decided to get in on it for a second, and cried because the noise hurt his ears.  It took over an hour for Finley to calm down - Nate took her back downstairs for a few minutes to remove her from the memory of my cruelty, but when she came back up, it all came rushing back and she started sobbing again, and then every few minutes, she would remember again and start crying.  Didn't really work out the way I had intended... and I will not be reminding her of this incident when I want to encourage her to obey.