Sometimes listening to what your children have to say is really all you need to do. Case in point: 3 year old girl with beautiful, long curly hair tells you repeatedly over the course of several months that she wants a haircut just like the boys get. Parent ignores request. 3 year old child cuts off all of her own hair. When initially confronted by "what did you do?!!" child smiles and says nothing. This should have been a hint that said child was happy with what she had done. It was not. Mother loses her mind, shows the child what she has done in the mirror. Child begins to cry, in hindsight the mother now believes this was not a reaction to the sight of the loss of hair, but rather a reaction to the upset mother. When people ask said child if she likes her hair better short, child smiles and says, "yes." So, did it do me any good to read this child the riot act on what we use scissors on? (the answer was paper, but come to think of it... we do use scissors on lots of other things) No. Did it do me any good to "ground" this child from her brothers' bedroom where the offending act occurred? No. Did she learn any valuable lessons? No. Did her mother? Yes. Yes, I did. Isn't parenting fun?