|
My daughter is 5 too, and oddly enough, pretty much the same thing happened to us this morning.
My mom says it's a phase, she called it "early puberty" -- at 5 they're no longer a toddler, and they see that they're at the threshold to being very independent and capable "big girl" so there's a certain amount of rebellion and whining.
This morning she was pissed that I gave her a smaller glass of smoothie than I gave myself and her mom, so she whined and cried and refused to eat breakfast, so I carried her to her timeout, told her her whining was unacceptable, let her sit there for about 5 minutes, then went in and explained that she was a big girl and we don't cry and whine like that, and that big girls know that mom and dad love them and will give everything they need, etc. That seemed to solve the problem, she stopped the behavior, ate her breakfast, including all her smoothie and all the extra smoothie in the fridge . . . .
I think behavior like this is cruising for a confrontation, as if they are simply testing the limits. The confrontation in our case seems to be needed and seems to be very effective.
|