Sydney will not EVER stay still. EVER. AND she will never come to me when I ask her to, whether to get her dressed, brush her teeth, give her a bath, feed her, give her a drink, ask her to play with me, get her to put her shoes on....nothing. She just RUNS. "Sydney lets get dressed so we can go to the park! Don't you want to go to the park?" Syd-"Yes MAMA!" as she runs as fast as she can in whatever direction I am not. I even use her best friend Jack or Seth as a bribe...don't you want to go play Jack(Seth)? Syd--"Yay Jack!(Seth!)" still running as fast as her little legs can carry her anywhere that's away from me. Sometimes its a little funny, but most of the time it INFURIATES me and I have to take a deep breath and calm down. Now why does this make me so mad? Because she does it ALL OF THE TIME! and I have no idea what to do about it, except just let her run, or threaten to stay home all day (which I can't hold to, because I would lose my marbles and doesn't work anyways because all she says is ok mama) or threaten a whoopin, or threaten to take away a toy or tv show (which doesn't work, EVER) or put her in time out(which also doesn't really work, because guess what? you still have to chase her and catch her first.) I'm pretty sure she just thinks its a big game, ALL THE TIME!
God, I love her, but she drives me BONKERS! Sometimes she'll listen and be good (once in a blue moon) and sometimes Daddy can get her to do whatever it is that I can't convince her to do. But mostly (i'll reiterate) she just RUNS. **i'm really praying this is a phase, or part of the terrible two's because I'm sure I can't keep up with her if this lasts much longer** Good part about it I guess (if you want to see a silver lining) is that at least I'm staying active, even on days I don't go to the gym. And at least she's getting some of her massive amounts of energy out, i guess....
Ok that was all. I just needed a little vent I think....lol i'll try to post again soon! (though not tonight, cuz i'm pooped) :-P
I think that the key would be to find a way to never chase her or give her any additional attention while she is running from you. (Easier said than done, I know.) (Assuming you are at home or in a safe place, obviously you have to chase her if you are in public or somewhere dangerous.) Maybe when she runs, you could just say something like, "Ok well I'm going to sit here with your shoes. Whenever you decide you're ready to go, come get me." And then while you're sitting waiting for her to come to you, do something really interesting, like play with one of her favorite toys or get out a pen and paper and start writing or get out some gadget (Mira loves my phone or the iPad) that you know she'll want to have from you. And then just wait for her to come to you. I think the chasing probably becomes its own fun game for her, so it only reinforces the behavior. But I know it's one thing for me to sit here and say that and a whole different thing to actually do it in practice. I hope you figure something out.
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