:(
I need parenting advice. :( I don't wanna post on the parenting comms tho, cos I am scared of most of the people there.. really I just read them for the entertaining dramz. :P
Pandora has been terrible lately. I'm not sure if it's because she's been through a lot of changes lately with moving house & such, or if it's just a three and a half year old phase. She's been so frustratingly naughty, it's driving me nuts. Some of the things she's been doing lately:
- she opened and poured a packet of jelly crystals across the kitchen (that was a bitch to clean up ><)
- she finally figured out how to open the fridge and destroyed my raspberries and strawberries as well as a whole packet of sliced cheese (she ripped the cheese slices to shreds, combined the shreds with the berries in tupperware containers - which she got out of the cupboard, and is not allowed to touch - and then poured water on them)
- she took stuff out of the bathroom - including my housemate's hair wax stuff - and smeared it everywhere
- she drew all over the coffee table and rocking chair with whiteboard marker (easy enough to clean off but, gah!)
- she constantly yells at me/argues with me, about eeeverything, even the smallest things
- whenever I take her out anywhere, she whines, complains, runs away, refuses to hold my hand, begs to go on those blasted coin ride things, begs for things from vending machines, and throws tantrums
- I avoid taking her to fun places like the park etc because she always, always throws a gigantic screaming tantrum when it's time to go home
- whenever she does something naughty and I get angry, she always says "I'm sorry Mama, I won't do it again" but this means absolutely nothing. Ditto with going to the toilet, every time I change her pullup (or undies if I'm feeling up to it that day) she says she will go to the toilet next time, she never does
Some of this is partly my fault, as she gets up earlier than me in the morning and doesn't wake me up (as she did in Canberra). She turns on cartoons herself and eats snacks from her snack cupboard, and wreaks havoc on the house.
Bribing with rewards does not seem to work. If I tell her I will give her something or other if she is good then she will tell me she doesn't want said reward. Threatening with punishment seems to work better. I am crap at carrying out said threats though. Today however (after the jelly crystals incident) I stepped it up a bit and told her that every time she did something naughty I would chuck away one of her toys. She has a metric fuckton of toys and I need to get rid of a bunch of them anyway. She had ruined a colouring book with water and jelly crystals so I started with that. She didn't like that at all and promised she would be good. Later on when she started repeatedly taking the childproof lock off the cupboard (argh why do I even have it ><) after I told her not to I chucked away some crappy Cars pencil holder thing, this time it seemed to sink in a bit more, she got upset and told me she would be good from then on. I've since been talking to her a lot about throwing away toys when she starts being naughty, and it seems to be working. My question is.. is this a good way to be dealing with this crap? Does anyone have any better suggestions? I don't really know what I'm doing, here.. all I know is I'm tired and have been feeling super crap lately and I really don't need this shit. I want good Pan back. :(
Pandora has been terrible lately. I'm not sure if it's because she's been through a lot of changes lately with moving house & such, or if it's just a three and a half year old phase. She's been so frustratingly naughty, it's driving me nuts. Some of the things she's been doing lately:
- she opened and poured a packet of jelly crystals across the kitchen (that was a bitch to clean up ><)
- she finally figured out how to open the fridge and destroyed my raspberries and strawberries as well as a whole packet of sliced cheese (she ripped the cheese slices to shreds, combined the shreds with the berries in tupperware containers - which she got out of the cupboard, and is not allowed to touch - and then poured water on them)
- she took stuff out of the bathroom - including my housemate's hair wax stuff - and smeared it everywhere
- she drew all over the coffee table and rocking chair with whiteboard marker (easy enough to clean off but, gah!)
- she constantly yells at me/argues with me, about eeeverything, even the smallest things
- whenever I take her out anywhere, she whines, complains, runs away, refuses to hold my hand, begs to go on those blasted coin ride things, begs for things from vending machines, and throws tantrums
- I avoid taking her to fun places like the park etc because she always, always throws a gigantic screaming tantrum when it's time to go home
- whenever she does something naughty and I get angry, she always says "I'm sorry Mama, I won't do it again" but this means absolutely nothing. Ditto with going to the toilet, every time I change her pullup (or undies if I'm feeling up to it that day) she says she will go to the toilet next time, she never does
Some of this is partly my fault, as she gets up earlier than me in the morning and doesn't wake me up (as she did in Canberra). She turns on cartoons herself and eats snacks from her snack cupboard, and wreaks havoc on the house.
Bribing with rewards does not seem to work. If I tell her I will give her something or other if she is good then she will tell me she doesn't want said reward. Threatening with punishment seems to work better. I am crap at carrying out said threats though. Today however (after the jelly crystals incident) I stepped it up a bit and told her that every time she did something naughty I would chuck away one of her toys. She has a metric fuckton of toys and I need to get rid of a bunch of them anyway. She had ruined a colouring book with water and jelly crystals so I started with that. She didn't like that at all and promised she would be good. Later on when she started repeatedly taking the childproof lock off the cupboard (argh why do I even have it ><) after I told her not to I chucked away some crappy Cars pencil holder thing, this time it seemed to sink in a bit more, she got upset and told me she would be good from then on. I've since been talking to her a lot about throwing away toys when she starts being naughty, and it seems to be working. My question is.. is this a good way to be dealing with this crap? Does anyone have any better suggestions? I don't really know what I'm doing, here.. all I know is I'm tired and have been feeling super crap lately and I really don't need this shit. I want good Pan back. :(