So, sticker charts: the last resort of the liberal middle classes.
We've been having trouble with DD going to bed. For the last few weeks, she's refused to let us leave her, wriggled and sung, shouted and made idiotic noises, and, these past few days, tried to get out of bed and start playing.
So I went for the standard incentive - a 'going to bed nicely chart'. She would get a sticker for every day she went quickly and quietly to sleep, and when she had seven stickers, she'd get a reward.
Day 1 went well. Day 2 went well. On day 3, she mucked about sufficiently that I had to have a stern word with her, resulting in tears, after which she went straight to sleep - that earned her a half sticker.
Then last night, she was back to her old tricks, and tonight, she was awful. She was only asleep by nine, after an hour and a half of peeing about.
So here's my question - what do you do when the chart suddenly becomes more of an albatross around the neck than an actual incentive? Given her three-year-old's attention span, she's soon going to forget the joy of having her parents' pride and a sticker, and only associate the thing with tempers and tantrums.
We've got to do something; we're barely getting an evening here, apart from anything else. And today at nursery, they told us she'd bitten three times (the same boy; a lovely, innocuous little chap). We thought the biting phase had passed. Last time it was an issue? When we were trying to get DD to sleep in her single bed by herself. I do not think this is a coincidence. The whole area bothers her. Yep, somehow, I've created a problem. Whoopdedoo.