Nail Polish

Miss K (3) seems to be getting a lot of airtime in the blog right now. Could it be because she's in a "phase?" I'm just not sure if her phase is motivated by some physical changes (e.g., brain development--it can be painful to myelinate) or "just behavioral."

This summer, she did a lot. She went to preschool. She started ballet. She took swim lessons. She got a taste of life as a BIG GIRL. She liked it. Now, as we wait for preschool to start again, she's hanging out with Mary Poppins more. She's really bored at Mary Poppins's house. When kids (myself included) get bored, they do things that aren't necessarily good choices. For K this involves screaming, kicking and hitting. (For me, it involves saying yes to projects that I shouldn't say yes to because I don't actually have ANY EXTRA TIME.)

When N (now 5.5) was three, she was difficult. I didn't have this blog yet, and I was pregnant with T, and it was HARD. Capital HARD hard. N didn't like her nanny at the time. It wasn't Mary Poppins. It was NannyT. Each night, N would tell me how much she didn't like NannyT and I would feel terrible. Each morning N would say how much she didn't want NannyT to come. It wasn't good.

That's how it is now with K.

[Begin tangent]
A nanny always sounds great, but it's work to have a nanny. I know it's work to be a nanny too. I'm not denying that. A nanny becomes part of the family, yet you pay her (him). A nanny has to be part of the family, but also understand there are parameters. A nanny has to maintain her own boundaries without feeling too rigid and closed off. It's quite a balance. I've not been a nanny, but I was a close assistant to one of my professors. Some of my duties included taking care of her children when she needed help and statistical analyses of her data. Talk about different tasks!

I used to get frantic calls from her late at night or early in the morning. It was hard. I never knew if she was calling to talk about an analysis or if I could watch her kids because her nanny was sick. Unfortunately, she didn't observe any boundaries I tried to establish on our relationship. She would strongly enforce the ones she set. It was hard.

I try to be fair. I try to see things from our nanny's point of view. Because of my experience with ProfJ, I try to make sure I'm not crossing boundaries...

[End tangent]

So that's some of what I'm thinking about today. There are only 11 more nanny days until K starts preschool. I'm counting down! It's going to be a long 11 days...


Oh, how does this relate to Nail Polish you ask? Well, K LOVES nail polish. Before kids, and even after, untiil K was about 2.5, I SWORE I wouldn't let my little girls run around with toe nail polish on. I myself love a good pedicure, but I didn't think they needed to wear nail polish until they were at least 10! Heh. Never say never.

I present Exhibit A ... K's toes (and sweet little feet...).

Last night, K upset Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins left very upset. It may not sound like a punishment, but last night, because of this, I removed K's toe nail polish. She cried and cried. I think it was a good punishment. I don't like to "punish" but rewards for positive behavior don't seem to be enough.

I had explained to K, as I had painted her toe nails yesterday morning (less than 12 hours before I had to remove it), if she wasn't nice, she didn't get to keep the toe nail polish. Last night, because of her actions, she lost the toe nail polish. We'll see how effective that consequence was. She has to get stickers at Mary Poppins's house today and tomorrow to get her toe nail polish back.