Punishment

Elizabeth is currently being punished for two things.  One is cutting her hair. She goes to bed an hour before Miranda. This will be the case until August 1 when her bedtime moves back too. Most nights she is asleep before Miranda goes up, but others she is just in bed reading. I actually like them going to bed at different times and wish we could keep it up somehow.

She also started peeing in her pants again.  As you recall if you keep up with the bodily fluids of my kids, she did this a while back and the punishment of picking out her clothes did the trick very quickly. Apparently, if we take away something she cares about (and she cares about what she wears more than most things), she pays attention to her body and doesn't have accidents on a daily basis.

She did well for a few months, but recently started to have accidents again.  And when I say accidents, I mean deliberate ignoring of her body and peeing in her pants all the time.  So I had to up the punishment a notch. So this time, I pick her clothes and do her hair.  I'm not sure which one she cares about more.   It's a tough call.

So all this week, I pick her clothes and do her hair. In a pony tail which she hates. In "marie" style (small pony tail with other hair hanging) or in other ways. She hates it, but lets me do it. If she takes out her hair or changes her clothes during the day, I add a day on to the punishment. Each time she has an accident, I pick her hair and clothes for a week.  She refused to wear a bathing suit I packed for her for camp so they had to get her another one so I added a day for that too.

Today, I picked a lovely outfit.  A plain white soft cotton fitted tshirt and a navy blue skirt that she has worn before many times. She was devastated.  She added tights and a jacket and I didn't argue, but I did put her hair up in a pony tail she hated.

When I went to pick her up at camp, she was wearing the jacket AND a sweatshirt over it. It was 85 degrees out so I asked her what was up. She wouldn't answer me at first, but then said, "I was so embarrassed by this shirt, I kept my jacket on all day even though I was so hot."  Did I mention it was a plain, white fitted shirt?   She isn't embarrassed peeing in her pants, but wearing a white shirt is like torture.

I was annoyed she could have passed out from the heat, but pleased she was embarrassed. Hopefully she'll remember that feeling when she feels like she has to go pee.

One day I'll stop carrying around an extra set of clothes for my kids, but that day is not today.