It started Thursday night and has snowballed into proportions I never could have imagined.\u00a0 Thursday night at dinner I talked to the girls about how the next day we needed to clean up their room, the playroom and the living room before Daddy got home. \u00a0I put the girls to bed a little later than usual since there was no school Friday.\u00a0 About an hour later I went into the kitchen and saw their door cracked and light on.\u00a0 I went in and we had a little chat (not a good one).\u00a0 About 45 minutes later I went to bed and JUST as I laid down, Sugarplum called for me: Honeybun saw a shadow and was scared.\u00a0 Three times I put them to bed that night.<\/p>\n
The next morning I reminded them of our clean-up plan.\u00a0 I put it to them this way: \u201cThis morning I want to work happily to get your room cleaned up.\u00a0 I want to work happily to get the playroom cleaned up.\u00a0 I want to work happily to get the living room cleaned up.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do it quickly so we can go have fun with our friends and not have to worry about it later!\u201d\u00a0 Everyone was eager and on board.\u00a0 We started promptly after breakfast and everyone was doing really great!\u00a0 I put Doodle down for his nap and Sugarplum decided she did not want to help anymore.<\/p>\n
I reminded her of our dessert rules<\/a> and that if she didn\u2019t do her job (cleaning up the playroom and her room) then she would lose dessert for a week.\u00a0 She said ok and I said ok.\u00a0 A little while later, Honeybun is still working hard at cleaning up as am I but Sugarplum is playing, making more mess.\u00a0 I inform her that she chose not to help so lost dessert for a week but may not make more mess for Honeybun and I to clean up.\u00a0 Sugarplum loses it, ensue screaming.\u00a0 And there\u2019s Doodle, awake, long before he\u2019s ready.\u00a0 Doodle spends the next few hours screaming and demanding to be constantly held and nursed.<\/p>\n I get overwhelmed with dealing with a screaming baby (who had finally calmed down) and a three year old who \u201cdoesn\u2019t care\u201d and really truly doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 No threat or punishment matters to her and I cannot for the life of me get her to do what I need her to do and I find myself crying uncontrollably in frustration. The girls hug me and gently stroke me but never say they\u2019re sorry for their behavior.\u00a0 And then I spot the blood.\u00a0 The blood, smeared all over the floor at my feet.\u00a0 Spread all over the door jamb.\u00a0 The baby with a huge paper cut, bleeding everywhere and happily reading a book.\u00a0 I clean up the bloody trail and bandage the bloody finger.\u00a0 The girls don\u2019t really deserve to do our fun thing and our friends couldn\u2019t make it but we went anyways and we had a good time.<\/p>\n Friday night, hubby is home and we talk about the day and all that happened.\u00a0 We talk about the frustration I felt and how we expect (and need) them to be better.\u00a0 Fast forward an hour and it\u2019s like a replay of the night before: girls are up playing with the light on.\u00a0 A while later, up again.<\/p>\n Fast forward to Saturday morning and it starts ok.\u00a0 We have our neighbor girls over for the morning, all go to lunch together and it\u2019s great.\u00a0 But when we get home, it just continues.\u00a0 Not following directions, not listening, arguing, being nasty and sometimes hateful.\u00a0 After dinner, bed time.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a three-peat.\u00a0 Three times laying the girls down because they are up playing instead of sleeping and hubby and I are at a loss.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 I talk to the girls about consequences and warn them the morning will bring a negative consequence for their inappropriate behavior.<\/p>\n Hubby and I spend the rest of the evening talking about what to do going forward.\u00a0 The frustration, the anger, how to react and how not to react.\u00a0 We came up with a plan, the consequence.<\/p>\n This morning things started out nicely we reminded the girls that a consequence was coming for the way they acted at bed time.\u00a0 There were no surprises\u2026right away.\u00a0 After breakfast, though, it all fell apart.\u00a0 Sugarplum refused to fulfill a simple request (something so simple and routine I don\u2019t even remember what it was).\u00a0 Cue consequence.\u00a0 I grabbed one of the diaper boxes I\u2019ve been hoarding for who knows why since Doodle was born and began filling it up with toys.\u00a0 I sealed it and set it against the wall.\u00a0 I explained \u201cwhen you can\u2019t handle following directions and doing nice things for mommy and daddy then you don\u2019t need all your nice toys.\u201d<\/p>\n A little while later I catch her with a bunch of coins we had collected while traveling.\u00a0 I ask her to give it to me and she starts crying.\u00a0 I warn her not to wake up Doodle (for the 4th<\/sup> fricken day in a row!) or it will mean three boxes and she starts screaming.\u00a0 Cue Doodle crying and me grabbing three more boxes.\u00a0 Filled them up.\u00a0 One more round when she refused to bring her towel in from outside that she threw on the ground after swimming (yes, I let her swim after all the above but ONLY because I needed Doodle to take a decent nap which meant keep the girls outside for as long as possible!).<\/p>\n
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<\/a>So the deal is this: make a bad choice, you get a box full of toys that you may not touch. \u00a0Have a great day, you get to unpack a box the next day.<\/p>\n