Question
My daughter (2 years old) has been trained to pick up her toys. She got to the place that I could tell her to pick up toys and would walk away and she would take care of them. We were very pleased that we had reached this stage. But suddenly she’s stopped doing that. Now I have to tell her several times and recently have started using a timer before walking away (I heard you say about a watched pot never boils). When the timer goes off and I come back and she hasn’t picked up the toys she gets a spanking. Then I set the timer and leave again. It takes 4-7 rounds of using the timer and then spanking before the toys are picked up. I told her she has to pick them up before she can play with her daddy outside or before she eats supper. If the toys don’t get picked up she has to eat alone later after the family is done the meal and she can’t play outside (the worst consequence in her world). But even doing that doesn’t seem to be working. What do you recommend?
