Tricky Toddlers

My three year old girl, “Princess”, is generally well behaved but has a few tricks up her sleeve.

The other day I noticed her sitting in the pantry, I looked in but she didn’t seem to be doing anything. A little while later she went back in there and again I couldn’t see anything she was eating but thought I should investigate further. After some searching I found a hidden juice box that I almost missed because she had stored it behind some boxes. We then had a little talk about asking mommy’s permission. While one juice box isn’t a big deal there are things she shouldn’t be eating and if she hides more stuff from me it could be dangerous.

Sometimes when I’ll tell her not to do something she tries to get her 1 year old sister to do it anyway. While I try to be discipline them equally, I think Princess has caught onto the fact that Sweet Pea gets away with things because she’s too young to understand.

Sweat Pea can open our front door if it’s unlocked so we always keep it locked. But if Princess wants to go outside she’ll just unlock the door and tell Sweet Pea  to open it. When I get mad at her she tries to argue that it was Sweet Pea’s fault.

It’s not just limited to her sister though, we had a playdate the other day and Princess found another juice box (can you tell she’s not allowed to drink them very often?) to play with on her pretend picnic. I told her she could play with it if she didn’t open it. She then handed it to her friend and asked him to open it. I then asked him nicely not to open it either. Then right in front of me she whispers to him, “open it!” And now the juice boxes are going to be stored higher!

I’m not sure if I should take these sneaky tricks as a sign that Princess is a genius or future manipulative teenager. I can’t even imagine the trouble I’m in when Sweet Pea is old enough to be a co-conspirator!