Friday, June 27, 2008

attitude-nal

I mentioned last week that The Phi has been throwing attitude around. It is mostly in her voice. She has that annoyed high pitched "okay" that I thought we wouldn't hear out of her mouth until well into her teens. Turns out when she turned 3 her attitude turned 13. I have tried to explain to her that when she responds to us like that its "attitude". That has just made it worse because now she says "no, and that's attitude" all in the annoyed high whiny voice. And she has discovered the power of "NO". She tells us no every time we ask her or tell her to do something. No matter what we ask her the first answer is always a very emotional "NO!".

"Hey The Phi, do you want a cookie?"

"NO!"

then she thinks about what I said and changes her answer... "Yes I want a cookie"

But always with the No first. This all could be a phase but its been really tough one for PR Dad and I. We are beyond frustrated with this and with The Phi. I have been reading a book called "Love and Logic" trying to find the best way to deal with this. PR Dad has taken to doing yard work to stay away from The Monster I mean The Phi. The attitude and blatant disobedience is
hard to deal with. And the more frustrated we become the more irritated she becomes and then everyone is pissed, The Phi is in tears and the My Little Ponies are still all over the floor.

But then she does something just so adorable. This morning we came into the office. The Phi has been carrying around this little purse for a few days. Today I walked into my office and put my purse down where I put it down everyday. The Phi waltzed in right behind me and in an exact motions put her purse next to mine.


We are hoping that all this passes soon, but PR Dad and I have discussed changing her reward chart around. It worked well for awhile, and the threat of taking away a happy face still works, but we are at a point where she gets so many taken away that we are in the negative. PR Dad thought of making a Trouble Chart where she gets a sad face for misbehaving, then when she gets to 10 she gets a toy taken away for a week. Maybe we will have to try that. Anything to try to get our little angel back.

3 comments:

  1. when she says no to that cookie, i hope you dont give her a cookie when she changes her mind. or atleast point out that denied it at first.

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  2. Anonymous10:40 AM

    You should have spanked her more as a kid! Kids are spoiled these days, so the grow-up not having respect for authority. When a kid shows a little fear towards a parent that only means they will naturally develop respect as the age. Time-out’s don’t work!! Just look-a-round at how kids act these days. Everyone is so concerned in developing their kids’ individual skills, that when they become of age, they have a difficult time adapting socially. For example: Just look at those Gothic kids. Most of them are individually smart and musically talented, but can not survive socially?? We don’t grow up to live alone, do we?? Suerte!

    Hermanos y Hermanoas Siempre Unidos!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:42 PM

    oh 3. 3 was AWFUL. 3-1/2 was the WORST. I really wanted to give my DD away to the first taker. LOL. Just tell yourself that this too shall pass....

    AZ is miserable - we are going to Flaggstaff which is similar to Big Bear - MUCH cooler. I grew up near Palm Springs - in Yucrapa, I mean Yuciapa if you know where that is!

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