The snack experiment

We've been having a little problem around here for the past six months or so with Kylynn, she has been sneaking candy.  The girl has a sweet tooth and while sweets are far from forbidden around here I tend to keep candy as a special occasion treat.

But there is candy stashed away in the pantry and in a jar in their bathroom (for potty training) and she knows it.  Unfortunately this has happened repeatedly and while we've been able to deal with the lying associated with the candy stealing, she now will admit it when asked, we've yet to stop the sneaking of the candy.

I don't know about y'all but my kids have robbed me of half of my brain cells, so I am not creative when it comes to discipline, it's a constant part of my job and I get in a major rut.  Whenever this happens I turn to Kyle, thankfully he still can think outside the box, his idea: give her unlimited access to healthy snacks.  Foods that she can count on being there and that she is allowed to go and grab without our permission.  When we told her of the idea she was ecstatic, I'm pretty sure the words "without our permission" are her favorite words to hear.

So I spent the afternoon preparing a bowl of food for her, in it I put yogurt cups, cheese sticks, apple slices, blackberries, carrot sticks, broccoli, and celery slices.  Used my new handy dandy labeler (which I need in case that dream of professional organizer ever comes true) to print a "Kylynn" label for it and put in on the bottom shelve of the fridge where she can reach it.

When I brought her in to show it to her the first thing she did was grab a yogurt cup, which she ate half of.  After dinner, after saying she was full, she walked up to me munching on a cheese stick, and I managed to not say anything.  I'm excited to see how this works, to see if giving her more freedom actually helps her to obey the rules.  I'm not sure if she can resist the forbidden fruit in favor of the real thing, but it's worth a shot.