Attachment to Objects

[giraffe]

You are petting an unstable mindset and she is getting worse. Take it over NOW and release her from this anxiety. She's begging you to do that but you don't see it.

At 3 years old her mind is still ruled by her emotions. It is developmentally NORMAL for the child to feel extreme emotions over things that seem insignificant to us.

[daycarewhisperer]

At 3 years old her mind is still ruled by her emotions. It is developmentally NORMAL for the child to feel extreme emotions over things that seem insignificant to us.

I don't really see the age of three being more or less emotional than any other age group.

It's our JOB to show them what is and isn't significant.

When things like this come up, I reccomend just trying the simplest solution first. Tell her "no" and then tell her what you want to do. "No little Missy... you can't have the napkin that fell on the floor. Take this new napkin". Then be done and move on.

"No little Missy... Mommy and Daddy decide what car we will have."

It doesn't have to be harsh... or in a strict tone. Just tell her what you will and won't accept and to leave it at that. We have managed to complicate parenting so much in the last decade. It really makes me shake my head. We need to stop putting adult emotions onto kids and start telling them what we want and what we will accept. It's okay to stop this in its tracks now at the young age of three without having much fuss or muss.

[ladyjbug]

I was like this as a toddler/younger kid. I particularly remember how heartbroken I was when my family sold our van that I grew up in, but toys/clothes/books bothered me too. One thing my parents did that helped me was to take a picture of everything that they sold/gave away and put it in an dollar store album for me. If it was clothes, there was a picture of me when I fit the clothes. That way, I could "visit" with the memories of that item at any time, but they could still give it away. I kept it in my clothes drawer. Over time I put less and less of the pictures in there, but it helped me that I could look at it whenever I wanted. I ended up marrying someone who purges the house pretty regularly of junk, so I did eventually get over it!

[JennJubie]

I was like this as a toddler/younger kid. I particularly remember how heartbroken I was when my family sold our van that I grew up in, but toys/clothes/books bothered me too. One thing my parents did that helped me was to take a picture of everything that they sold/gave away and put it in an dollar store album for me. If it was clothes, there was a picture of me when I fit the clothes. That way, I could "visit" with the memories of that item at any time, but they could still give it away. I kept it in my clothes drawer. Over time I put less and less of the pictures in there, but it helped me that I could look at it whenever I wanted. I ended up marrying someone who purges the house pretty regularly of junk, so I did eventually get over it!

What a lovely idea!