The Whining – Make It Stop

CootieGirl loves to whine. It’s her absolute favorite thing to do. And it’s the most annoying habit she has.

Last night I had about 20 minutes to hang out at home before I had to go to music practice, and for the first 10 of those minutes CootieGirl sat at the top of the stairs hollering, yelling, screaming, and whining for me to come to her. Meanwhile I asked that she instead come downstairs into the kitchen and speak very nicely to me rathering than yelling and whining.

She continued to yell and whine. I told her again to come downstairs and speak to me nicely.

She came downstairs, stood in the foyer, and yelled and whined. Now, at this point she could SEE me, but still felt that it was important that she NOT come into the kitchen and speak in a normal voice to me.

So I went out to the foyer, sat her on the bottom step, explained that whining was not acceptable, that I had asked her repeatedly to stop, and that now she had 4 minutes of silent timeout on the steps. She protested, saying she wanted to be good. I said, “You can be good right now – by sitting on the step and not making a sound for the next four minutes.” She sat down and I walked away.

A few minutes later I came back and knelt down next to where she sat, and explained again that whining was unacceptable and that from now on Daddy and I would ignore her if she whined and that the ONLY way she’d get a response from us is if she spoke nicely to us.

So we’ll see how that goes.

In other CootieGirl news, yesterday morning was a bad morning getting ready for school and she would NOT cooperate one little bit. So last night when I came home from music practice I went up to her room to say good night. I sat on the side of her bed and said, “Now, I want to make sure you know what I need you to do tomorrow. I need you to get up, go potty, and change out of your pjs into your school clothes. If you can do that for me without whining or stalling, then we’ll have time for a waffle or pancake before school.” She said okay, and with a kiss she was out for the night.

This morning? Total turnaround. She got up, she was pleasant, she went potty, she changed into her clothes (although I think Daddy helped, but I was in the shower so I’m not sure on that one), and she was nice (and whine-free) all morning. So guess what? We ended up being early and I was able to heat up frozen pancakes for them (they get breakfast at school, but lately they get this morning treat if they are well-behaved in the morning and get ready without complaint).

Last item: she’s also obsessed with her hair now. This morning she painstakingly put in six barrettes in her hair. SIX.