Growing Pains

I have been rather distraught lately trying to figure out how to handle my three year old’s out of control behavior. Lily has had a rough few months and has been rather fussy to say the least (to say the most she’s been mean, angry, tired, miserable, and very out of control – I can say that because I am her mother and love her to pieces.) It was so bad that I even took her to the doctor to see if there was anything physically wrong with her. I have been desperately trying to figure out an appropriate discipline strategy that works for her. I’m not sure when it all began, but she slowly spiraled into this little monster and it lasted for about a month and half. Then out of nowhere, it was as if a switch flipped and she turned into this perfect little angel. That lasted about a week and then the monster came back. James had to come home early occasionally to rescue both us from each other. I tried time out, locking her in her room (please don’t tell DSS), ignoring her (do you know how difficult it is to ignore a three year old following you around screaming and hitting you), reasoning with her, talking to her, and just about everything I could think of. Finally, this week, I came up with a behavior clock. I printed out a clock, got some stickers and set a timer to ring every hour. Every hour we assess her behavior and if she is good, she gets a sticker to put on that hour. If she is bad, she gets a sad face. At the end of the day, she gets a popsicle for having mostly stickers. From the second we started using the clock, she has gotten no sad faces. What is up with that? Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to have my sweet little girl back, but was all it took was a clock and some stickers? At the mention of a sad faces, she quickly straightens up and corrects herself.

I’m still not sure if her behavior change is due to this new strategy or just a matter of timing. This morning Lily was standing near her growth chart and for fun I backed her against it. In the past two months, she has grown 1 1/4 inches. Well there you go – this child has been growing out of control. Lily has never handled growth spurts well. I don’t want to give her too many excuses, but it can’t be too comfortable to grow that much in just two months. She only grew 2 1/2 inches the entire year last year and in two short months, she grew half that amount.

Either way, I am happy to have my sweet, enjoyable child back. I’m now hoping she takes after me and will be short. I don’t think our household can handle too many more growth spurts.