Princess Training 101

No, we are not going to Disney Land... it's nothing as exciting as that. ;0)

Ladies and gentlemen- we have a hitter.
I know, I was in horror too. But it’s true.
I cannot deny it.
Well actually,
I tried.
The first time we got the note home from the teacher I was just SURE it had to be the ‘other kids fault’.
Not my little girl.
Surely she wouldn’t hit anyone...?
But the second time the note came home, I knew it was time to face the music.
So… we came up with Princess training 101.
What is princess Training 101 you ask?
(Let me explain- even if you were not really going to ask)

Hitting seems to be second nature to preschool aged kids. Someone makes them mad- they just haul off and hit them (or kick or pinch or bite). So while I know this is common, and I know this is probably what she witnessed a lot of in the past-we also wanted her to learn a new way of handling stressful situations.

This is where Princess Training 101 came in.

We sat down with our little cherub, cuddled her and turned on Cinderella. While watching the show we constantly pointed out how sweet and kind Cinderella was to everyone. Even when people were unkind to her she always acted in a sweet, kind, loving princess way. Then we watched the mean step sisters. We watched how they made ugly faces, said unkind words to get their way, pointed out how the way they acted was rude, selfish and just plain mean. Then we asked her which character she wanted to be.
She of course said Cinderella!
"I want to be Cinderella mommy!"
So, I gentle asked her who she had been acting like when she was at school talking ugly to her friends and hit them.
You could have heard a pin drop in the room as the realization hit her.
She admitted that she had been acting like the mean step sisters when she treated her class mates that way.
I reminded her that while we all make mistakes, its very important that we realize our mistakes and then begin to work hard on correcting them and that was exactly what we expected of her now.

Since I like to reward hard work- hard changes- we came up with something that Lainey is extremely excited about. We made up a chart that is on our refrigerator door. Each day that Lainey comes home with a smiley face from her teacher indicating a good day- where she didn’t hit or talk ugly to someone- she gets to put a crown on that day. Once she has 30 crowns she will get to dress in any princess dress she chooses (we have about every single one thanks to garage sales!) and her daddy and I will take her, all by herself, dressed like a princess, out to dinner, to any restaurant she chooses.

I’m proud to admit we have had 8 consecutive days with no hitting and no talking ugly. (Actually her teacher even emailed me to tell me she is doing really well and that a little girl had hit her and Lainey just walked away!)
Yep- she is definitely my precious princess (in training). :0)