Today my three year old daughter got a pink hobby horse from our trip to the dollar store because she had been trying so hard to be good lately.
Then she decided to beat-up on her baby brother. Walked up right behind the kid and shoved him down. Hard. Completely unprovoked.
So, I put the horse away. (Really, I've just run out of ideas here, people.)
She asked me where he had gone and I told her I put it away, she'd get it back when she plays nicely, etc.
But she persisted with the continuous stream of questions:
Where is the horse? How long does she have to be good to get it back? Will I donate it? If the other little girl pushes her little brother, will she donate it back?
Finally, I told her the horse went away because he only likes to play with kids who are nice to their little brothers and that he would come back when she treated her brother nicely.
"But mommy, how can he do that? He's just a pretend horse...."
Photo Credit: Horse
That's what you get for having such a smart little girl. T-R-O-U-B-L-E. I am beginning to think that kids are payback for all the people we annoyed when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so much like my house. I try to use natural consequences as much as possible and every time I step outside of that and do something like what you described here, it seems to come back and bite me too. The game never ends...
ReplyDeleteShe sounds like my 3yo. Usually she plays so nicely with her little sister and then all of a sudden she's pushing her down, stealing her toys...
ReplyDeleteEventually I hope to figure it out. Maybe by the time they are getting married or something LOL