garbage can strategy

I consider myself to be a relatively grounded person. I prefer to explain myself in full rather than make a rash statement that will shut down a difficult conversation. This behavior applies to discussions with DH, friends and family and, of course, the munchkins. While fully explaining my rules and decisions to the little people at home may SEEM like a good idea ... I find that they lose interest in what I'm saying after about, oh, I don't know, four words. So, I have a new strategy ... not necessarily a 'good' strategy, but a new one nonetheless.

Here's the set up: two children who are hopped up on too much leftover Christmas candy and still high from the mountain of amazing toys that have spilled into our home during the holidays say things like, "no, don't touch that, it's mine, Santa brought it to me, you can't have it!", followed by streams of tears and screams. The statements escalate to threats, "if you touch that again I will hit you really, really hard!", followed by more tears and screams. Now, this maybe be fairly typical behavior for an over-tired, sugar-buzzed 2 year old. And, me being the "relatively" grounded person that I am knows this but, I'm telling you, the screams that come from the tiny mouth of a 2 year old will UNDO a person .... totally. So, after the toy in question did get touched ... again ... and then was used to draw blood from her brother's head we decided to implement this new strategy, "since you guys are not sharing this toy and are using it to hurt one another then your Dad and I are going to put it in the garbage can!" Shut down! The kids looked at us like we were crazy (we were), the 2 year old started to cry while Daddy put the toy in a garbage bag and the 4 year old pleaded with us to not throw away his sister's toy as he insisted the bloody mess on his head was an accident (sweet, but I'm not buying it). Anyway, the toy was trashed and no stitches were needed. And since that day when I remind the kids to share a toy I hear, "if we don't share are you going to put it in the garbage can?". Yes. I. Will.