Monday, June 15, 2009

Taming of the Shrew

You may remember that I mentioned on Thursday, that I was going to take Ricki “shopping” on Sunday, with the express purpose of working on her behavior. Well, I did that yesterday, and the experience was about what I had expected. We were near some stores, at a doctor’s office, at 4PM. Ricki had eated lunch at 3pm, and had a bottle of drink with her. Nevertheless, as we exited the doctor’s office, she started screaming that she was hungry. (She had seen some sweets). I told her “No”, and she started pushing me, trying to convince me to buy her a treat. I warned her that if she continued, she would receive nothing, she would not go shopping with me, and we would go straight home. Well, she started REALLY pushing me, crying, etc. At least I was calm!After 5 minutes of this I had managed to reach the bus stop, and we caught the bus to home.
The lesson is that I can not put off ANY shopping to the last minute; I can try once or twice with Ricki, and if it doesn’t go, to go on my own. Often in the past I have given in when shopping, because of not wanting to postpone making purchases, and the result is that she is horrendous when we go shopping (and really usually only then.) This is going to stop FAST as I will no longer tolerate it. I allowed these bad habits to develop; it is time to change both my and her behavior.

1 comment:

RivkA with a capital A said...

Wow, good luck! I am also working on changing some of the dynamics in our family that I do not like. It is SO HARD!!