Dancing for Dough

So, I started this new thing with Curly to try and help with positive reinforcement. I have been having a hard time keeping grips on the frustration bug now that she is three and we are in the throws of trying to do an adoption. It's just a lot to handle and my fuse hasn't been as long as I would like it to be. So, we brought out a cleaned out peanut butter jar (glass) and some decorative stones.

When she does certain chores, she gets a stone (which she likes to call "chips"...but I am not helping my story here by comparing her to a gambling queen). If she does well on a car ride with no whining, she gets a stone. Good attitude = stone. Bad attitude = take a stone away. She has a list of things that she can earn toward and how many stones it is worth so that she can cash in later.

She can earn staying up half an hour late, a trip to the playground, going to the grocery store with just Mommy, a dollar and a trip to the dollar store to spend it. You get the point. Each special thing is worth different amounts of stones so that she can practice saving up for things and decisions about spending now, or saving for something she really wants.

So... fast forward to this afternoon. We got home from a really fun trip to Nana's house where she enjoyed a very full day. She earned a lot of stones and we put them into her jar when we got home. I let her have the chance to earn a few extra stones by picking up her brother's dirty clothes and putting the family's shoes in the closet where they belong and she was happy to do it. It seems to be working well.

...but then....

.......then my little girl starts dancing around the house and looks over at me. She stops mid move busting and says to me with a smirk that tells me she just came up with a crazy awesome plan, "If I do this dance- THEN I get a DOLLAR and go to the store!" Her little face glistening with a gleeful smile because she was inventing a new "job" for herself.

Yeah...umm.... sorry Charlie, but that isn't going to happen for OH so many reasons. The most important of which for your knowledge right now is- you don't get to pick your jobs. And let's hope by the time you do that your parents have taught you well enough that you don't get dollars for dancing.

I do love how children can say such inappropriate things and still remain innocent about them. I just hope she never comes up with that one again.