Thursday, June 3, 2010
Discipline
So I tried a new discipline tactic today and it totally backfired! Lydia loves to do 'craft time' at the dining room table. She has a whole bin of markers, crayons, scissors, paper, glue, you name it! She has been resisting cleaning up her mess after she is finished. She whines and begs for help and screams and today she totally lost it. I told her that if I had to help her clean up I was going to throw it all in the trash. She said 'okay'!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. She was just glad to get out of the job she had to do. So, I proceeded to throw all the stuff away (except I kept the scissors). She didn't even care! I made her watch all the things going in the trash and it didn't even phase her. The only question she asked was 'what are we going to do with the bin, now?' So, I've solved one problem - no more craft mess to clean up - but what have I created? A lazy child with no regard for her or her sibling's possessions??? This is definitely in violation of our house rules "show love" and "take care of what God has given us", but I have no idea what to do about correcting the behavior. Help!
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I'd consider explaining to her that YOUR actions violated the house rules and that you two will be getting back all those things out the trash. Then have her do some cleaning somewhere else in the house. So you've made a trade. You cleaned up her mess, now she cleans one of yours.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andy. When Tim got home he had a similar idea. We did get the things back out of the trash. I really didn't think she'd let me throw her things away and I didn't want to give an empty threat...Sometimes I just don't know what to do with that little girl! Praying continually...
ReplyDeleteBoys can be such dumb animals, but girls... are so tricky.
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