As a follow-up to my ranty post the other day about Miss M, we met with her therapist-- who is a friggin saint (and very wise)-- who not only validated our frustration and concerns, but had some good suggestions for managing behaviors.
1.Stay strong! Don't take no crap off of no 5 year old! If she pitches another fit in the car (complete with chair kicking like she did on Tuesday of this week), pulls that sucker over!
2. Teach kindness-- i.e. awareness of how other people are feeling, how her actions affect others. Taking suggestions on this point!
3. Be more affectionate-- she's still dealing with a lot of anxiety over the pending reunification and needs to be reassured that she's going to be ok. Oy. That can be a hard one for me, but if more hugs and high fives and positive affirmations of correct behavior will get us farther along the behavior path than my default setting of 'no!', then I'm all for it.
Thoughts and comments? I welcome them!
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Also, have you checked out my Easter post? We had a nice time! We do manage to have fun with these kiddos, between the tantrums. :)
And stay tuned for my thinky post about taking family portraits last weekend and how that's really the first step of my grieving process.
When you pull the car over, don't make her get out and walk on a busy highway with almost no shoulder, LOL. I tried it with someone a lot older than Miss M and all my neighbors called. I didn't get mother of the year that year.
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