That Will Teach Ya Mum!

Ok if we all read any parenting book - it all seems pretty straight forward and simple. Then you apply these principles to real life and well it seems I have had my first (and probably not last) parenting backfire lesson.

And it all started over desert - specifically me serving up some peaches! Ella's response was yuck (which is becoming an increasingly standard response to food) - fine Ella either eat it or go hungry. Ella sits and begins to stew...chewing the end of her hair at the same time. Now I this is where I made my first mistake by adding 'And stop chewing your hair!!!' Yep my patience being a sole parent was wearing thin. I mean really what was I thinking - Ella hair chewing is becoming a habit and I wasn't going to stop it there and then.

However next mistake was a threat and we all know that you have to follow through. 'Do you want me to get the scissors and cut it off so you can't chew it?' That worked for a whole 20 seconds before laughingly she put her hair back in her mouth. So snip off comes the end bit of the offending piece of hair. It goes straight back into the mouth - snip more comes off. Again straight back into her mouth. By now I was thinking can't go on forever and she doesn't seemed to be too phased. Ok snipping stopped. Hmm that didn't work at all.

What I wasn't prepared for was what happened next when Ella disappeared into the lounge room. When she reappeared in the kitchen about 1 minute later, she had her scissors in one hand and a big clump of hair in the other!! OMG. The tears started to flow when I took her into the bathroom to show her what she had done. At least I can just get it up into a small ponytail on top so the damage isn't too noticeable but I think a trip to Bernie, our hairdresser is on the cards...