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Little Things
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My dd5.5 is (to put it nicely) driving me a little bit crazy.
She keeps doing little, annoying things. Just this morning, she has:
- Turned off the light while ds7 was working on math,
- Opened the dishwasher while it was running, “just to see if the dishes were clean”,
- Blown on the windows to make them fog up and then started drawing shapes on the windows,
- Taken her shoe off countless times and put it back on again,
- During history, she asked, “Mom, do you remember pharoah’s name? Rameses”, even though we weren’t even talking about a pharoah.
I don’t understand what she’s trying to do, but it really is getting on my nerves. I don’t know what habit these types of things even fall under. It’s not that she’s blatantly disobeying; more like she’s trying to push my buttons.
Any ideas? Advice?
Thanks,
Lindsey
Wow – you just discribed my daughters behavor this morning! It is also little annoying things too like:
I asked her to wake up her brother, and so she did….by SCREAMING “WAKE UP!!!!” into his poor unsuspecting ear.
Instead of sitting next to me for a reading of scripture, she decided to try and sit on my shoulders.
During Biblical History, she proceeded to dig her chin into my arm and kiss my arm in big wet drooling kisses.
This is not what I would call “normal” behavior for her. I’m thinking she is greedy for attention (a problem we have dealt with in the past). Could that be your problem with your daughter?
Could it be cabin fever? I know we have it around here and everyone’s getting on each others nerves a bit
. For us, this happens every year around this time. We live in Michigan and are expecting a foot of snow tonight. I’m dreaming of spring – running outdoors, sunshine, birds singing, gardening, etc. PLEASE do not wake me up LOL! SAME HERE! My 6 yr old son is doing the same thing! He is out in la la land..and keeps interrupting with silly things or things that do not pertain to what we are doing!
I give my boys lots of hugs and attention..I think it is penned up energy! He wants to go outside..I should just let him! Because he has lost concentration! For a few days..that is! 🙂
Sorry, I am not of any help..just feel the same way!! 🙂
I honestly don’t think it’s cabin fever. We live in northern West Texas, and played outside all weekend. Today is our real first snow of the season. This type of behavior for her isn’t necessarily abnormal; it’s just worse than usual. I want to know how to deal with it on days like today when it’s worse than normal and every day when it’s “normal”.
Lindsey – it sounds to me like she is looking for some attention…. I might be wrong on it…
Can you do something kind of just-for-her a bit before starting homeschool? That might fill her “attention cup” a bit…
My 7 dd does the same thing from time to time. She gets lots of attention as the baby of the family. Sometimes I tell her she is getting too big for her britches (sp) 🙂 . I feel that is a respect thing with her. She has some time outs and we’ll talk about if she wants be treated the way she is treating others and then she’ll act nicer.
Hi Lindsey,
I have 2 5.5 year olds in the house, and I can relate to this kind of behavior. It sounds like your daughter is a bit unsettled and discontent. Limiting her choices might really help. I believe “contentment” is a CM habit
For example, I might give my little ones their basket of playdough toys and tell them then may sit and play playdough for 1/2 hour. If they don’t want to, then I say, “your options right now are playdough, or sitting quietly on your bed looking at books.”
Or maybe it’s time to go outside for a bit, or time to work with markers and crayons for a while. The point is, I find that sometimes my young ones just need some very limited options if they are getting into that “unsettled” pattern of flitting from one unfocused, unconscious, annoying thing to the next.
Once they’ve settled into an appropriate activity, they often become much more content and settled.
It sounds to me like she is curious about “what will happen if….” And they don’t particularly sound like naughty things to me. I have a 5 (and 3/4 thank you very much) dd as well and she is full of it too. Being our youngest so far I want her to behave like an 8 year old but she just isn’t 8 yet. Plus, she is the family baby, not the “do it the right way” oldest child. I try to give her quick “missions” or “experiments” to keep her out of trouble but still let her be curious. How tiny can you cut up these strips of paper? Which flower smells the best? Can you stack the blocks with your eyes closed? They don’t take her very long but they often get us over a patch and her mind off of whatever mischief she was planning. Oh, and we started an oral story (about princesses and unicorns-yuck) and when she is getting crabby or into other’s things I quickly ask her “Remember our story? What do unicorns eat? What happened after the queen found them? Where do they sleep?” That can be very distracting as well.
And thanks for the “first snow of the season”! I am in MI looking out my window at the “snowpocolypse” of 2011!
Ours always seem to go through a similar phase around that age (at least all five who have surpassed or are currently in that age bracket). Good thing it doesn’t last!
If I can get my head together, I try and mix up the day between learning, playing and chore time. I find if it’s balanced enough they don’t get into so much trouble. Most of them have just wanted to be useful, and instead of asking for something to do, they just become irritating. One child, however, just likes to be irritating….. but that is another story.
And besides, who doesn’t like to draw shapes on the windows in fog? 🙂 That’s one battle I don’t fight….. I always loved to do it and besides, they’re the ones who polish the windows… But the other stuff would drive me crazy.
I agree with the limited options. Children are usually better with two choices of something to do than many.
Just my two cents for what it’s worth.
Gaeleen
. For us, this happens every year around this time. We live in Michigan and are expecting a foot of snow tonight. I’m dreaming of spring – running outdoors, sunshine, birds singing, gardening, etc. PLEASE do not wake me up LOL! 
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