When the Claws Come Out!

There was a whole number of titles I could have given this post, I toyed with it being something that included the name Damien or 666 but having been forced to trim Miss G’s fingers nails to nothing but stubs I thought using claws was apt. You see my gorgeous, funny, clever, cheeky and a lot of the time loving 23 month old daughter has started grabbing and scratching people. For minor offences that displease little miss she’s likely to grab at your face or hair but when you do something she really doesn’t like the claws come out as it were. Young and old she isn’t fussy.

I was mortified to be met with an incident form when I went to collect MIss G was nursery last week. The detail explained she had been involved in a dispute with another child, had gone to scratch their face and then been rather shocked when they managed to scratch hers. I was reassured that the other child was ok and told only Georgia was sporting a marked face! Watching her give hugs to her friends before we left I saw my usual caring little girl and was then reminded about her momentary dark side by the nasty looking scratch on her cheek.

The dark side reappeared on Mothers Day when Miss G wasn’t happy about me calling her naughty after she had throw chips all over the floor. Whilst bending down to pick them up, I felt a small chubby hand grab my hair from the back and pull. I again told little miss that was naughty and to not grab people’s hair. I was met by this near demonic smile and the sweetest but equally as sinister sorry. Next victim was Grandma B, who managed to upset Miss G by using the word no and found herself with a very red scratch to her neck. More telling Miss G to be nice, not to scratch and to say sorry to Grandma.

We managed 2 days without any outbursts then I got a call Wednesday. Miss G hadn’t taken kindly to her 8 months older cousin taking something from her that Grandma L had already said she couldn’t have. I’m told her cousin is now the owner of a nasty scratch to her cheek after Miss G felt the need to lash out with her nails. If one flair up wasn’t enough  she later decided to lash out at her 5 year old cousin for no real reason. Trips to timeout and being ignored seemed to have an effect as she then felt pretty sorry for herself for the rest of the afternoon and whinged away until it was time to leave.

First job yesterday morning was to cut all her finger nails to within a millimetre of their lives and again explain that she needed to be nice and not scratch people. Within the hour she tried to grab my face. I bent down to her level and calmly told her it was naughty to grab and she had hurt mummy so I was putting her in timeout. Again with the demonic smile she tried to wriggle out of her punishment by saying sorry. No such luck lady! The problems started again while we were out shopping. She’d had a long nap, we’d had a lovely lunch out and she actually ate and after asking if she could now walk the buggy had gone back in the car and she was holding my hand like an angel. The shopping trip was going really well…they have been quite stressful lately, but as soon as I said “No” as she reached to pull a pot jar off the shelf the grabbing hand made for mine that was holding her other and I was left with red finger marks. Again I bent down told her that wasn’t nice and she had hurt mummy and again came the smile! Not ten minutes later after asking to be carried I had to say “No” to sweets and my cheek then bore the brunt. All I could think was at least I cut her nails and would anyone notice if I created a timeout zone in the middle of the frozen foods!

So as I dress the little cherub for nursery this morning, after lots of hugs and kisses, I’m praying the other kids don’t face the wrath of Miss G today and hope this phase is a very short lived one.