Does anyone else have a child that feels the need to bend, tear, rip, dent, scratch, crush and/or completely destroy anything they can get their hands on? Brent and I are at the end of our rope when it comes to trying to teach Mariska to take care of all our things. She can't have any fun books with flaps or pop-ups. She rips up anything with a label. We certainly don't replace things that she destroys, but she just doesn't care.
The best way I can describe how she treats all of her things (and ours), is to use Dwight from The Office as a comparison. She treats everything she gets her hands on with the same attitude that he "tested" Jan's stroller with. If she could, she would perform "the bumper test" on all her belongings. I'd love advice and ideas on how to teach her the value of her things, but mainly I'm looking to not feel so alone in this!! Anyone?
7 comments:
You should lock her out of the house every time she destroys something. Or get rid of ALL your possessions - problem solved! Beat her handily? What, you want USEFUL suggestions (or ones that would not otherwise leave her in the hands of Child Protective Services)? Fine. Are you taking away whatever it is she's destroying the moment you catch her? Are you catching her early enough? Do time-outs bother her? Sorry I'm not more useful here. My kid only chews things up so far. Good luck, though!
As I was reading this post, Lily ripped a coloring book off the counter and my phone, which was sitting on top of it, went flying through the air...crashing to the ground. Coincidentally. The phone is fine. But I understand your pain. That's just how it is.
What do I do?...If something is in her reach, I should expect her to play with and destroy it. If it happens, I have no one to blame but myself...because I know better even more than she does.
Oh yeah, she looses whatever it is right away. I think a big part of the problem is that she's not really trying to destroy things, I guess, I think she's mostly just checking stuff out, testing it for durability or trying to just see how things work.
I guess it's a good thing we can't afford really nice stuff yet!! I especially don't want to get nice new couches until after Brynley stops puking all day! I'm almost 35 weeks baby!!
Dwight is so funny!
Welcome to parenthood - your life is over. I think a lot of kids are this way. We decided that it was a waste of our $$$ to get anything nice until the kids were older. We finally got nice TV room furniture after 11 years.
I'm at least glad to hear that she's not just some rude kid... it's comforting to hear that it's normal!
Ha! We recently got rid of our Bookshelves. We know the feeling. :(
Don't worry...you're not alone. We still struggle with this as well.
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