Helping a Child Change Her Thinking
Miss N has been in a funk the last few days. I have been praying for insight about what it is and how I can help her out of it. Not sure I have found it yet, but we made some progress this morning and I learned something in the process. Today everything came to a head. We were in Target. I made it clear what we were doing at Target and that we were not buying any toys. Things were going well until we got to the checkout, where a beautiful princess Barbie was on display. Miss N decided she wanted it. I explained that I had not brought money for toys today, and she started whining and complaining. “You never buy me anything, I don’t want earrings (we were headed to the mall to buy them for her newly pierced ears). I just want this Barbie. She’s so pretty and I want her so bad!” You get the idea. To her credit, she was not throwing a fit. In fact, to others her behavior may have been “normal” or just a “phase,” but I am trying to teach her to be content with what she has and to ...