Why is my dd so rubbish at being excited?

[missmoopy]

My dd (almost 6) is properly rubbish at being so excited! That is, she gets super excited about stuff and then her behaviour deteriorates. Like now, excited about going to stay at Grannys next week, so being a little sod....not dong what she is told, being cheeky, stroppy etc etc. The naughty step is going to need recarpeted soon!

Don't tell her anything till five minutes before then. The problem is with kids, that they don't get time really. Unless they can understand, 'this will happen in X hours, that's a long time away' they constantly are on their toes waiting for whatever treat to start.

You can either attempt to get abstract concepts such as time or deferred gratification into her head or just for now, delay telling her about things till the last minute.

Thats all well and good for most things...but birthday and Xmas? She is like a little ticking bomb!

Ah well that's where you have to involve her. Give her task (granny is coming, we need to put all the shoes away, 1, 2, 3, GO!!!!) etc.

I feel for you, DD is exactly the same. We keep everything very low key and only reveal a small section of plans. (e.g. we will go to the shops on Tuesday) but not reveal (and buy you a big fluffy dress because you have a PARTY on Wednesday and all your friends are coming YAAAAAHHHH!)

Actually telling them something like this is best done in a playground where you can physically exhaust them before returning them to a confined space. :)