Five-Year-Old Whine-Baby

By: Michael Pearl

My daughter Shalom came home telling the following experience.

I told her to go write it down. This is the view of a fourteen-year-old in her own words.
My friend and I returned from the store with ice-cream. When we meet her little brother and sister and gave them some ice-cream, he just whined as usual. He always wants something different from what you give him. But his older sister usually just says, "No, eat that one," or sometimes she gives him hers. This little boy whines about a lot of stuff to get his way.
Later that afternoon my friend was giving coffee to her daddy and the little boy whined for some as well. But after several times of whining and her saying "No" he finally gave up and started whining for hot-chocolate. When the sister said "No," again he continued to whine. She kept saying, "You can have water but no coffee or chocolate." By this time I could see that they were training him into a whine-baby, so I said, "No, he can’t have water either, if he is going to whine for it. He went into the corner and pouted at me for not giving in to his whining.
I explained to the sister that when he whined for a different ice-cream bar, I would not give him any ice-cream at all. After three times he would be happy with what he got.
When whining for coffee or hot-chocolate instead of rewarding him with water, I would say, "No water for an hour or until we eat dinner." Do not reward whining, no matter what happens.