When It Backfires, It Burns!

So, lately one of our twins, Avery, has been getting into more trouble than usual. She hasn't been too terrible, but she's been cutting hair without authorization, lying, fighting with her sister, and yesterday she pushed Maizy off of a stool because she said it was her turn to be the star singer! She has always been a little sneaky and mischievous. She's no Maizy, but she has had her fair share of time outs. Anyway, the other day she was on a roll. I sent her to her room several times and even grounded her from her scooter, but it didn't phase her at all. My "you're in serious trouble" face was just worn out by 4:00. It's hilarious when I give her "the look" because every single time, no matter how small her crime was, she will do this move where she crosses her arms and jumps up and down like a chimp and says, "Why do I always get in trouble?" With each jump she gets a word out. Or, she will change it up and go with the classic, "That's not fair!" Well the last straw came for me that day around 5:30 when she snuck a coke from the fridge to her room and spilled half of it on her rug and instead of cleaning it up, she covered it up with a paperback book! I told her that I would be talking to her dad when he got home that night. Telling dad is always my last resort and it's my version of "bringing out the big guns." What's funny about this is that I am more tough on them than he is, but his bark is bigger than mine so it makes a difference. His way of discipline is the constant empty threat, like "Do you want to go to your room?" or "Do you want me to ground you?" My way is just "Go to your room" and "You're grounded." But, for some reason they are more scared of him than me. So later after dad got home I filled him in on Avery's mishaps and I told him he should talk to her. He calls her into the living room and of course all three girls come running in to hear her fate. He asks her why she was doing those things and what was she thinking? Then he asked her to tell him what her favorite thing in the house was. She didn't answer him because she knew it was a trick. He asked her again and she looked like she was really thinking hard about it. McKenna kept chiming in with different things like, "Is it your bike?" "How about the Wii?" But Avery was silent. Then finally she said, "I know. My favorite thing is cleaning the living room!" Really??!! That's funny because we told her once to clean up the crayons she had left out, and it took the child 3 DAYs to do it! She hates to clean! She knew that whatever she said, her dad was probably going to ground her from it so she had to pick something she hated so it wouldn't matter. Very clever. See, McKenna never would have thought of that! So now Avery is thinking she got off easy, but you should have seen the look on her face when her dad said, "oh, really, well since cleaning the living room is your favorite thing, then that is going to be your job for a whole week!" HA. Well that sure backfired for her. So Avery should have an awesome day today because it will be spent doing her most favorite thing! Gotta love it!!!