Battling the Whine!

 Anyone who has little girls, and maybe even little boys, in their home knows how annoying it is to hear whining all day!  Well, we may have had a breakthrough!  Sometime this Summer (maybe around June) I asked the Lord to help me help Aaliyah not to whine.  I didn't want to have to spank her every time she whined.  I subscribe to No Greater Joy publications and they had an article in their magazine about dealing with anger in small children.  One the Pearl children is dealing with that in their home and their solution was to sometimes spank, but sometimes tickle it out of her.  Well, Aaliyah begs me to tickle her sometimes {Strange, I know} so I felt like the tickle trick might be a reward for whining rather than a punishment.  So my trick is the "Happy face" trick.  When she starts whining because the answer was No I immediately say to her, "Happy face!".  She might think it's dumb; but her forced happy faces are so funny that I ALWAYS start to crack up laughing!.  This inevitably causes her to smile (sometimes even laugh) for real. 

I say that we may have made a breakthrough because this morning when I told her she couldn't take her baby doll with her to the library, she started to whine; but immediately said to herself "Happy Face!".  I was so proud of her!  She is now training herself not to whine!  Isn't that great!  If you have any other tips about Battling the Whine that has worked for you please share!

Until next time,