Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Julia and I had some bumps yesterday and I yelled at her. I hate yelling at Julia because I know that it is counterproductive. She either digs in her heels and get more angry at me than I can ever be at her, or she closes down and does not respond. But she repeatedly does things that I feel are bad behavior and no amount of reasoning and asking or telling her to change the behavior works.

Julia has been taking my things from where they belong, especially books. She takes a book, a shelf of books down and leaves it where it falls. I have told her over and over that she can do this to her own books in her own room, but not my books. I've told her she cannot leave books anywhere she wants. I have helped her clean up what she does to my stuff, and I have made her clean up alone. None of it seems to make any impression.

So, last night, I started taking things away from her. When she takes out my cook books and leaves them on the floor, I take her crayons and put them out of her reach. When she empties the book shelf by my bed, I take the clay. I explained consequences and she told me she doesn't want to talk about it.

And it doesn't help that being sick extinguishes any patience that I might have.

I feel like i don't have the answers here. And it is frustrating.