Love and Logic?

I was trained in Love and Logic as a teacher before I had kids, then took a bible study on it several years later when Avery was little. In theory, it's a great principle: The child takes ownership of her actions, faces a consequence that is logical to the offense, and learns to make responsible decisions on her own without seeing the parent as the bad guy.

I really do try to use this idea when it seems appropriate and makes sense (oh yeah ... and when I can remember to keep my cool!)

This morning at MOPS, we had a wonderful speaker talk to us about Love and Logic. With it fresh on my mind, I realized I had the perfect opportunity to test it out just 5 minutes after we got home.

Ella had gone into the pantry in search of "treats" as she and Avery like to do. She spotted the bag of flour right in front of her and, pulling it down, immediately started asking for "gookie". My first instinct was to say, "No! Put that back." But then I realized that the front of the bag had pictures of cupcakes on it, so that's why she thought there were cookies in there.

So...Love and Logic.

Why not let her look in, even try it if she wanted? Then she would figure out on her own that some things are not treats and don't taste good. The beauty of it would be that I wouldn't have to be the bad guy, telling her no, listening to her whine, making her cry.

Of course Avery wanted in on it, too. Perfect, I thought.





Uh, nope! TOTALLY backfired on me. They loved it.



At one point, Avery even asked me for a spoon.



Great, so now I have one more thing that they like and are going to try to sneak out of the pantry at any given opportunity.