I want the ‘terrible twos’ back!
I never thought I would say that but that’s what it’s come down to. What is it with 4-year-olds?! I swear Caitlyn has turned into a “mini-teen” over night! The backtalk, the meltdowns, the flashes of temper when she doesn’t get her way…… the threat of being sold to gypsies no longer works and timeouts are a joke to her. After much arguing back and forth she will stomp to her corner, glare at me the whole time, and then stomp away again when the time is up and go right back to what she was doing. Everything has to be her way, what she wants, and if not she just flips out.
I attribute some of her attitude to a lack of an afternoon nap. Around 1-2 in the afternoon she gets super cranky. I do my best to get her to go down for a few winks, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. If she does nap, she if very cooperative and mushy for the rest of the day (for the most part). But getting her to nap is no easy task and when she gets no sleep, look out!
I finally told her this morning that we are going to try something new. Every time she backtalks me I will take away one of her “stuffies.” Her pink panda or one of her Webkinz will sit high on top of the frig for one whole week. And if she continues to be mouthy then more friends will join her. That got her attention really quick — now let’s see how well this works!!!