Ups and DOWNS

So sometimes gifted kids do things that are not very smart.

Today I found out that Z drew, with a marker, on some cloth Japanese doll magnets I bought in Florida. I was SO angry. She said she didn't know why she did it (isn't that their excuse for everything? At least it is in my house.) She said she thought they were dry erase dolls...

I was so angry. Why? Well first, those dolls were my special thing that I brought back from Orlando (Pere got a Japanese numeral watch and Z a mask.) Second, this is at least the third time Z has written on something that she was really not supposed to. A couple months ago I found that she had written her name in pen on her wooden dining chair and when she was almost 3 she wrote her name several times in pen on our ottoman. (what is with her and writing her name on stuff??)

So for punishment I made her miss lunch with Pere and me and eat it in the bathroom (that was the only place in the house where she could eat alone and I wouldn't have to worry about a mess. I would have just sent her to her room but she was having piano lessons right after lunch time and I didn't want her to go on an empty stomach.

After awhile I said she could come out and she was so sorry that I forgave her and almost felt bad for punishing her (almost.)

Then after piano practice we went shopping and, when my back was turned putting the grocery bags in the trunk, she stood up in her grocery cart seat and almost fell out head first! I don't know how many times I have told her never to stand up in the cart. I was upset again. I was just really worried about her and annoyed that she would try that.

See, I don't know what having a "normal" kid is like. I only know Z and she is usually so responsible. She behaves like an adult in so many ways that I am always shocked when does thoughtless stuff like that.

It is hard to know what kind of expectations to have and what standards to set.

I told her recently that I don't expect her to be perfect. I said that we all make mistakes, even grown-ups, we all make mistakes. But even so, she does not have a "Get-out-of-punishment-free card." When she (or I) make a mistake we still have to deal with the consequences. Usually her punishment is a lecture from me. Sometimes she is yelled at and sometimes sent to her room. But the last two rarely happen because she usually behaves in an acceptable way

Oh well. We have our ups and downs.