When Ana was three - and to an extent, even now - her knee-jerk response to a quick "ANA!" was "You're mean, I hate you, I'm not your FRIEND!" and a steadfast refusal for the whole time-out process. You put her in her room until she calmed down, and until she was calm she'd make SURE you knew she was upset. (NOT putting her in her room didn't work either. This way, at least one of us could keep our cool.)

Evangeline? Before you even start telling her not to do something it's "Sorry, Connie! I love you!" which is just as annoying (and harder to deal with) but oh, so much more pleasant. Send her to her room and she bounces out in five minutes with a big hug - and bounces back in because her toys are in there and she feels all better now, so she'll play, okay? When she wakes up early from her nap she does not sneak around and attempt to make the biggest, stickiest mess possible. She gets a toy... and goes back to bed!

Weird.

So, yesterday we were going to go out, but after they put their jackets on I nixed it on the grounds that the snow had become sleet. Sorry :( As a condolence prize, though, I said we could head upstairs and have chocolate milk, mmmmm, isn't that good?

We go upstairs and I say "Take off your jackets and put them away, and then you'll have your chocolate milk."

Ana refused. And refused. And when I told her again she said "Well, I just want to put it over *there*", and this finally culminated in "I always have to be good to get a treat." (Um... yes? That's why it's a treat? LOL, Ana!) I had to wait a few seconds before I could reply - it takes the weight off of your statements when you're laughing at her expense - but then I said, very firmly, that yes, that's how it works.

And it escalated from there, with comments that SHE would tell her MOMMY how I was being MEAN and SHE would tell her DADDY that I didn't give her CHOCOLATE MILK!

Right around there I put her in time-out until her Dad came home (well, I took her out of time-out after she calmed down, but she still had to sit at the table and not do much) and told her Dad all about it. She can not use "I'm telling my parents!" as a way to get out of behaving. It's absurd! (Not to mention that it's simply not gonna work. Really.)

I have no idea where she got the idea that this was a good idea, either. She's tried it before, but she's never stuck with it past the point where I put her in time-out. (And, to my knowledge, after calming down she's never told her parents I was mean for, you know, making her put her stuff away and all.)

She didn't get any treat, either.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: frustrated