Saturday, November 17, 2012

Layla

Layla is my youngest child and only daughter.  She is a beautiful child inside and out, with personality, joy, laughter and play.  Too bad for me, she also has her father's temper.  This little girl can throw a mind blowing tantrum.  Her fits are loud, insane, and when it is over, the house, myself, and she look like we barely escaped the wrath of a tornado.

For the last month, I have searched for new discipline ideas for our problem.  Because I am her mother, I cannot use the same tactic that I use during one of my husband's episodes, which is ignore it, ignore it, ignore it until it is finished.  It has been proven to be ineffective to spank her, have her sit in time-out, take away her candy money, keep her inside from playing, etc.  I was in need of new ideas, fast!

My first new idea was to encourage the bad behavior.  Take her power away and laugh at her.  When she screamed, I would say, "Again!", clap my hands and laugh at her.  Boy, was she infuriated!  I kept on laughing at her.  Definitely not my finest parental moment, but at least I was in a good mood after her tantrum, instead of wanting to strangle her.  We have not repeated the performance, and never will, but Layla did apologize and quietly cleaned her mess.

I am now implementing my second idea.  Everyday she receives a star on the board for not having a tantrum.  Her job is to keep the star on the board all day, and receive another star the next day.  When she receives 5 stars, we buy a new toy.  If she has a tantrum, she loses her star for the day.  It took her six days to get 5 stars.  She only had ONE tantrum in six days.  We are taking steps in the right direction.  Now she has her eye on a more expensive toy, so today we begin our ten star journey.  Wish us luck!

Arabic Word of the Day:  Sick = Mariid

Today, Layla is home because she is sick.  All day yesterday, she did not want to go to school, because she learned that Zayna (my husband's friend's daughter, who is the same age as Layla) was not going to school while her father was visiting from America.  I tried explaining that Layla could only use that excuse when Ray was visiting.  She remained convinced she would not be going to school, and to prove it, she ran a high fever all night.

How do you say, I am sick = Ana mariidan.

4 comments:

  1. Oh,nice try miss inventor of the tantrum!! LOL Put her in her room , close the door, and let her RIP! That's how Mama handled YOU! When she is done , she cannot leave her room til it is cleaned .... FUN! ; )

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  2. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. You are not supposed to tell anyone that! lol

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  3. Hi Melissa,

    I got one of those blog awards and I'm supposed to pass it on to a bunch of other blogs, so I picked yours. This explains it http://haileyshongkongdiary.blogspot.com/2012/12/very-inspiring.html

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  4. Thank you so much for picking my blog! You have made my day!

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