It's A Mummy's Life published this post on 21 January, 2010...
You know what? Sometimes I just feel like saying to my eldest daughter "why?" Just why do you behave like a little tyrant with me yet you're sweetness and light with your nanny and pretty much anyone else you know? Why me? How did I deserve it? I just gave birth to you I didn't sell your soul to the devil for God's sake.
To be clear she is lovely most of the time as this blog will attest (cue guilt at saying such awful things about my beautiful girl) but you know sometimes it just feels like one never ending battle with tears, tantrums and so much shouting and surprisingly it's not from me. I'm quite good at buttoning it lately, but she's getting worse at 'expressing herself'.
So at the end of my tether this morning I created a (rather crap homemade) reward chart. It's pretty basic. One star (that she gets to draw) for good behaviour and once she has 3 (as she's 3 years old) she gets a reward (chocolate coin or similar, I'm sure the experts would tell me chocolate isn't the best reward, but it works for me).
And it has started to work. She was very helpful this morning, putting things away from the dishwasher (one fork at a time...), clearing up her toys, being nice to Tilly. She got a couple of stars. Then this afternoon she kicked Tilly and so she lost one. She was beside herself with misery.
I felt awful, and said to my husband,
"She's distraught about losing a star."
"Jolly good, it's working then!" he said.
He's right of course, and hopefully the allure of stars will keep her behaving like a human being rather than a schizophrenic chimpanzee.
However, needless to say she has found a way to short circuit this noble plan. She said to me this evening that she had 'two more stars Mummy!'.
"Really? You only had one before your bath..."
"I drew two more on! Can I have a prize now?"
I'm not sure I really thought this one through...
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