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where there is great love there is always miracles
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April 16, 2018: 11.22am.
"Laila, come and look at this!" Jade announced.
With the postman this morning came Laila's sticker behaviour chart and a 200 bulk pack of star shaped stickers in multicolours and Jade couldn't wait to get it stuck to the kitchen fridge and hoped that it would work some magic and start working immediately.
"What is it?" Laila asked curiously, joining Jade at the kitchen table.
"It's your new sticker chart! And look at all these stickers that you can earn!" Jade replied enthusiastically.
"I don't like it," Laila announced blankly, turning towards the door to head back to her playroom.
"No, no, no. Come back, let's talk about it first," Jade said pulling the little girl back. "Look, it's a very special chart, this one because it has your name on it and it's your favourite colour!" Jade explained having purchased the 'Strawberry' coloured one knowing that the bright pink was Laila's favourite.
"And these are the days of the week, and the different things that if you do well you can have a sticker on the chart! Do you want to try and read the words?" Jade encouraged.
"No," Laila said plainly, she clearly wasn't hiding her feelings about the idea.
"Okay, I'll read them then: look we have 'listening' so if you do really good listening to me, 'homework' for doing your reading, writing and maths, good manners, do you know what that means?" Jade asked.
"Saying please and thank you," Laila said reluctantly.
"Good girl, manners is saying please and thank you and being polite. And we have a sticker for helping me do some chores and tidying up your toys, and then we have mealtime and bedtime. So if you do all six things really well in the day then we can get a sticker on the chart, and if you get thirty six stickers out of 42, then you can get a treat!"
"I don't want it,"
"Yes, you've said that a few times but we're going to try it for two weeks and then we'll see. So this week, what do you want your special treat to be if we get all the stickers?"
"I don't want a special treat," Laila pointed out.
"Come on, Laila. We talked about this the other day and we thought it would be a good idea to practice being a good girl..."
"I changeded my mind,"
"No, we're still going to try for two weeks and see. I know you can get all the stickers this week!" Jade said excitedly. "If you won't choose the treat, I'll choose one, okay? What about a trip to the ice cream place? Or a new Barbie doll?" Jade offered.
"Ice cream," Laila sighed.
"Okay, great! I'll write it in here," Jade started explaining writing onto the laminated chart and looking up to find that Laila had already left!
Jade sighed and rolled her eyes as she continued to stick the chart on to the fridge. Just because Laila wasn't enthused about the new system doesn't mean that she was going to give in that easily!
April 16, 2018: 12.22pm.
Laila still hadn't come round to the 'sticker chart' idea, and actually hadn't entered the kitchen since she disappeared out of it earlier.
YOU ARE READING
Raising Laila
RandomWhen Jade's parents died in a fatal car accident last September, sweet, innocent Laila, having witnessed the crash from the backseat was left behind. With Jade too busy working to become her legal guardian, the role was passed to eldest brother Karl...
