While I think it wise to praise a child when they’ve done something good . . . I found it hard to do so last night. We give our daughter ‘Airborne Sticks’ which is similar to the Airborne Immune Booster but it’s like a pixie stick in it’s shape and delivery. Littlefoot (daughter) had already had one for yesterday and while there is no danger in letting her have two, we didn’t want to let her have another one until today. Thus, one a day. She seemed content at just holding it so we let her hold it. Wife and I were talking in the kitchen and noticed it was very quiet in the living room, we decided to check it out.
There she was, Littlefoot was sitting in her mom’s office chair, airborne stick in one hand, scissors in the other. We watched from a distance to make sure she was safe . . . she was concentrating so hard . . . it was almost funny. She figured it out, used them properly, and proceeded to make a mess with the powder. I think she got to eat some of it but a good bit fell into the chair.
So what do you do? Scold her for using scissors? That seems wrong because she used the right tools in the right way (with little to no instruction) so we wouldn’t want to get on to her for using her mind to figure something out. We instead addressed the fact she was told that she could not have one until the next day and she went against us openly and defiantly. She also had to clean up the mess which presented a new opportunity.
She is petrified of the vacuum cleaner; but being a powder there is really no other means to clean up the mess with. So we made her face her fear, I stood beside her and helped her hold the hose but she did the work. After a few minutes she got more ok with it. In fact, she ended up enjoying it!
So, in the span of one night, Littlefoot figured out how to use scissors, made big progress in conquering her fear of the vacuum, and suffered two punishments from the parental units. Not bad for a 3 year old!