So one of my zaniest ideas in getting Faith to control her sassiness was coming up with a silly word that I could say to her to remind her that she was going down a dangerous road with her behavior. Obviously if she's feeling defiant, she likes to say the opposite of what we tell her, so coming up with something that had no 'opposite' would take away the option of her 'talking back'. And, it would sort of hopefully do the old zen master trick of shocking the mind into awareness by NOT following any logical pattern of thought. Or at the very least, derail her grumpy train with a word that just sounds silly. She agreed, and we agreed that we would regualrly change the word to keep it fresh. So now, in our house, when Faith starts getting nasty, we tell her "Horkleshnoff".
Of course, it's really just me. Steph can't ever remember what the word is. We decided that she should get to choose the word next time so that she can remember it. But...at least so far...it seems to work. When I say it she looks at me very angrily, but she stops what she's doing long enough to keep her out of trouble.
And I haven't even had to yell it yet.
Matt
