In Z's world.

Today on the way home from seeing Nacho Libre Z bemoaned "We only did two special things today."

*grrrr*

We have always had a hard time with Z and getting an adequate amount of gratitude from her.

Recently, maybe when she started doing the How to be a Princesss in Seven Days routine or before she has been asking every morning "Are we doing anything special today?"

That question on it's own is not a problem. It is kind of sweet and I imagine she likes having something to look forward to every day. For awhile the special thing was something to do with her Princess training but might also include a pool party. Since then we have had a recital or play date or park day or birthday party or something to do pretty much everyday. It seems like every day we had something special to do.

But when she starts complaining about only have two special things, which by the way were going ice skating with her friends and seeing a movie, it makes my blood boil.


Gratitude has been a concern of mine regarding her for a couple years now. When she was there Pere even made up a prayer that we have said every night since then where we thank God for the basic things in our life, like shelter and food, as well as coming up with new things each night. It is kind of like a verbal gratitude journal.

I have also used bibliotherapy to teach her to be grateful. We are reading Heidi right now who should be a great role-model.

It is not like Z is a terrible Veruca Salt type spoiled brat. For one thing Pere and I do not respond to demands. Z has nice manners and often shows her gratitude with smiles and excitement.

I just think that her world view is skewed. In Z's world something new and interesting is happening all the time. In Z's world life is fun, even "school" is fun. In Z's world everyone loves her and even strangers are kind, and likely to give her a free balloon or lollypop. In Z's world if she falls down on the ice skating rink about 15 of her friends race over to comfort her and little children she just meets hug her and give her cupcakes.

In Z's world her ever loving parents are the closest thing she knows of meaness because sometimes they scold her and they often *gasp* say "No."

I can imagine that it is easy to get caught up in a world where everything is so so special, that suddenly only going ice skating and seeing a movie in a day doesn't seem like much.

So I've got to come up with yet another way to get her to understand that she really isn't a princess. She has chores to do and school work and she needs to do them with a good attitude. And when we do something special she needs to say "Thank you."

I am working on my plan and I think it has something to do with having her be useful to her family without having to be asked and doing a "good deed" for someone else. I would like to take her focus away from what she _wants_ to what she _ought_ to do.