Running in the beautiful spring air--ahhhh. I did a whole 3 miles without wanting to puke. Hurrah!
Worst Part of the Day-
The whining. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. Sigh. Scarlet woke up happy and cheerful as she tends to. Then she started whining about how she wanted her socks. Then her shoes. Didn't want to brush her hair--tooooo snarrrrrleeee. I wanted princess toothpaste, not robot toothpaste! On and on. I try to follow all of the rules: Don't give any attention to the whining-check. Give attention to positive behaviors-check. Flat out ignore the whining-check. Remove privileges-check. Resort to Thinking Step for continued whining-check. Finally I snapped. Through clenched teeth I instructed there would be no more whining. I sternly informed her that in the book I am currently reading (What is the What? It is excellent, by the way) there are these kids (Sudanese refugees) who have to walk every day and every night with hardly any food, little water, no shoes and barely any clothes. They sleep on the ground with no blankets. They see wild animals eat their friends. Do these kids whine? No. Never.
I think I have my whiney child with this story. She is quiet for a few minutes.
She then asks, "Are the kids naked?" "Some of them are", I say and I explain their situation a bit and what it means to be a refugee, war, etc. I really feel like she is grasping the gravity of some of it. Perhaps it will finally sink in to her that she has nothing to whine about!!! Then she responds, "Ya know, you're not supposed to walk around naked."
Ho hum.
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