A Few New Issues

[HaileysMom07180]

So my dd is 4.  She is starting to do a few things that is driving me crazy!  The first thing she is doing she has done in the past, but not as frequently.  She dunks the toilet paper rolls into the toilet or sink and plays with it.  We have it hidden and I even have to stand up to get to the toilet paper when I'm finished going to the bathroom.  The second thing she is doing is clearly because she is trying to help, but its not.  She has been putting her dirty clothes on top of the clean clothes that have finished washing and then puts laundry detergent on it.  A lot of it.  Last time she did that I had to wash them 3 times to get all the soap out of the clothes.

[tulip40in05]

 I also have a 4 yo dd.  Sounds like it is time for the "uh oh" song.  Have you tried this?  As long as there is an immediate consequence (aka punishment) and you are consistent, it will work.  For my daughter, putting her in a time-out for a few minutes works.  Now, though, when she hears "uh-oh" sung, she immediately stops what she was doing. 

Good luck . . . they are tricky at this age.

[HaileysMom07180]

If we actually catch her in the act it works, but usually we don't notice she has done anything until long after she has done it.  By then when we ask her about it, we get the shrug.  We do do the uh oh song, but we had to change the beginning words to oh no. Mainly because my dh kept saying uh oh when she would get hurt and she would run to her room crying because she thought she was in trouble.  I have considered making her buy a small 4 pack of the kind of toilet paper she ruined. (my dh is a little particular about his tp.)  As for the laundry, I asked her why she keeps doing it and she keeps saying she wants to help me wash the clothes.  So I have been asking her to come help me when its time to start another load.

[TweenAndTwinMom]

I would have her buy the toilet paper, and if she doesn't have money let her pay with toys or extra chores.  I'd probably focus on that issue first since you can't deny her access to the bathroom and then just put a lock on the laundry room for a while.  You can tackle the laundry issue after the toilet paper issue is resolved.  GL! 

[HaileysMom07180]

She definately has the money. She has been given money in some xmas cards and we have told her its a good idea to wait until she has place to put it like a purse which she is getting from us for christmas.

[2murphyboys]

I know the whole point is to curb the behavior but have you thought about switching to the Purex laundry sheets in stead of the liquid kind? I've had to do it (unfortunately money doesn't grow on trees and spending 15 dollars every 5 days on LS wasn't an option) because my boys would do the same thing everytime I would leave them with DH. lol

[HaileysMom07180]

The problem has actually been solved.  I told her she can help do the laundry but she has to finish it.  She only did one whole load (wash, dry, fold and put away) before she said it wasn't fun anymore.