I am failing to deal with my 3 yr old's behaviour - help!!!!!!!!

[fifitot]

My DD is a bright little girl but can be very willful and difficult.

I have tried and failed many techniques to deal with the 'hot spots' of our day. The main one being bathtime.

She is a very early riser (anytime from 5), I have given up on trying to deal with that, have tried and failed for 3 years. however it means that by 6 she is really tired. She doesn't nap at all and so this doesn't help.

I have to bath her at least every 2 days due to her excema. There is a whole ritual around bath and bedtime which she has slowly extended - piggy back upstairs, tickles on the bed, hop to the bathroom, hide in the cupboard................I am totally fed up with the cajoling and when I try to say 'no we're going straight in the bath' we have meltdown.

What's worse is that when she is like this she insists on only me bathing her and not her dad. Unfortunately have given in on this a few times for an easy life but it's set a precedent. She always wants me about DH when she is cranky, upset etc.

What can I do? She ends up screaming and running away from us so can't actually put her in the bath. She sometimes gets so angry she hits us and bites us. When she calms down she says she is sorry but we don't want her to act that way in the first place!

I would be grateful for any ideas!

You have my sympathy, I too have an early riser.

Can you bath her in the morning?

I would agree about trying to bath her in the mornings, especially if she's already used to going to bed without a bath every other night anyway.

I would probably play hardball about the you/DH thing. Just go out (invent a reason if necessary) and tell her that you have to go out so DH will have to do bathtime.

In terms the actual behaviour - sticker chart? Rewards? Making a game of it (using a egg timer to 'race'against to get clothes off etc. I know you may have tried all of this.

Have you tried a rabbit alarm clock for the morning stuff?

If she's an early riser, you probably have all the time in the world in the morning, so just do it then.

As for "can't actually put her in the bath" - I bet you could if you tried.

Thanks. Will try the egg timer actually - good idea.

I suppose I could put her in the bath physically but god it would be a struggle and tbh one of us might get hurt!

Some good ideas - thanks!