The other day, I was checking my emails when Sprout entered the room and wanted to sit on my knee, as she oftens does. A photo came up in one of my emails and she pointed to it and said, "Look! A plant!" The photo was of a room with a table that had stuff on it including the plant. I don't know why she decided to hone in on that one detail. Maybe because we don't have any pot plants in our house - not for the lack of wanting to, it's just that I haven't ever had the house organised enough to tizzy a room up with pretties such as this.

But...

It got Sprout and I talking and we decided that, the next time we went into town, we would go to Bunnings and she could pick out a plant that she can call her own that she can look after. And, Sprout quickly added, she would need a watercan - a green one - to water it with!

So today, we had to go to town for some supplies that hubby needs and we happened to need to go to Bunnings.

Hubby and Sparkle went one way to get the necessary items in need and Sprout and I headed in the direction of the plants.

We arrived at the indoor plant section and I said to her, "You can pick any one from all these" gesturing towards the whole display. Well...it took forever for her to get the idea that she could pick one and then she would change her mind. At one stage, she looked at me pensively and then spurted out, "I'd like to grow some beans!" LOL. Now -  I am not opposed to that, but I explained to her that we will grow some beans one day, but today we are just buying ONE indoor plant that she can have to water and take care of.

She finally got it!

She walked straight to a lovely flowery plant and plopped it into her cute little kids trolley (which she ALWAYS has to have when shopping at Bunnings)!!

We also bought her THE green watering can and a green pot to put it in. She was on a real GREEN streak today.

She was soooo excited to have her own plant and watering can.

When we got home, she got out of the car and the first thing she did was to go to the boot of the car and grab her plant to bring in. So cute.

Now, I decided to do this in an effort to start teaching her some proper responsibility. She is 3 and 3/4 years old, to be quite specific and I have been at her for quite awhile now to take responsibility of your possesions, look after them and take pride in what is yours.

Getting this through to her is quite a hard task. My dear little Sprout is quite a well-mannered, sweet-natured child but has a very strong-willed, independent streak. She will challenge EVERYTHING. And her attention span? Pffft. I can see that we are probably going to have issues of her flitting to one thing after another. Her FOCUS is very fleeting. You can ask her a question and she will just umm and ahh for ages and will need the question repeated - she will hear something like the TV in the background or something her little sister is doing and be distracted by that and I will have to really get her attention and ask her the question again before she finally answers!! Her focus is VERY good when she is doing something wrong though!!! She would go at that for ages until she got caught! Hmmm...

It just seems that everyday, I am saying the same things multiple times and she is just not responding. She does initially but later on (sometimes, as short as 15 mins later), she is doing the undesired behaviour again.

I am trying to teach her that, when you get dressed - put the clothes you took off, eg. pyjamas, away. She just takes clothes off and plonks them where she stands. I never taught her that! But she still has not caught on to the desired behaviour.

I am also having issues of the 'snack' cupboard. She knows that there are choccies, biscuits etc in a certain cupboad and she always goes and helps herself without asking or she will ask as she is doing it and won't take NO for an answer.

I know it is propably just the age - still testing the boundaries, exercising her own will, challenging everything we say, and just wanting to do everything for herself (which is fine - she just needs to ask first! It's simple really. Yeah?). But I think that we, hubby and I, as her parents need to be even more firm and solid with the rules of our household, be consistent and MATCH each other in all areas, especially in discipline. If we don't, we may end up with a slightly wayward child!

I don't want to squelch her personality in any way or snuff out her spirit. She is a very energetic, bright and bubbly little socialite and I need to keep her busy and entertained ALL the time. She was never one to just be able to entertain herself. She has always needed others, mostly me, around her to provide it or experience everything WITH her!

I was reading something earlier on another blog about not trying to change a heap of things ALL at once. Change is a journey; not a one-stop shop and it's fixed kinda deal. So I am aiming to work on ONE thing at a time.

First stop...RESPONSIBILITY!

And when the plant conversation came about, I thought it would be a great opportunity to use it as a lesson. As much for me as for her. I will need to learn to step back abit and let her do it - not just try and take over straight away.

We'll see how it goes. Will keep you posted.