Ah, the many, many joys of parenting preschoolers! On most days, I absolutely love it! They are so talkative and inquisitive and talkative. And did I mention that I love hearing them talk?
One thing we are tackling in my home is kind of like talking... usually it involves some kind of request... lately, I would call those requests: WHINING!
When Mia was 2-3, she started whining. We corrected her for a day or two, modeling how we wanted her requests to sound. She repeated us and then we "reinforced" the pleasant voice by listening attentively. After a couple of days, we started ignoring the whining all together. She usually started out whining, then self-corrected, making a request with a pleasant-to-listen-to voice. At that point we happily engaged with her. That procedure pretty much took care of whining... until now.
I know that as the whining has crept back into my home, my husband and I have not been as attentive to it as we were in the past. We "fell out of practice" and the whining bloomed into a new-found, steady form of communication... AND it was effective. First they whined quietly, then it got louder and louder until we responded. We have returned to what we know works. I've put a sign on our refrigerator to remind us to refrain from reacting to the whines and we are hopeful, if not sure that this will take care of the problem. Of course, this remains to be seen... again. I'll keep you posted. :)
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