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My freaking niece. I love her with all my heart but almost every time I tell that little demon to avoid doing something, she daringly look at me with an evil grin and do it just meer moments after. She thinks everything is a game and my sanity is just another toy.
How about letting her hurt herself (slightly)? If she’s old enough to understand you, she’s old enough to learn that people who tell her not to do something mean well.
My nephew based his life on Dennis the Menace. I was cooking a family and got called out of the kitchen where I was working alone.
Two minutes later I come back in to find this kid (maybe 5?) waving my razor sharp french knife around.
I very carefully removed it from his grasp and when I wasn't using it I put it under a towel at the back of the counter. Told his parents to watch him.
Later he's got it again and a steak knife.
I take all the blades, put them in a box, and put them way up high.
Come back later and he's got a chair against the counter, a box on the counter, and he's heading back up the chair with more of mother's cookbooks to pile up to stand on...
Some kids are a little more extreme.
Edit: cooking a family feast, not a family (see first paragraph).
Cooking a family, you know you can go back and edit where you wrote that instead of adding an asterisk at the end of your essay.
Thought it was funnier that way.
That's a choice for the parents to make. I would never take that risk as an uncle
Talk to the parents then?
It's a good idea but the problem lies in the "slightly" part. The house is under renovation so the dangers are real.
Nonetheless , The idea is very interesting so if such scenario ever present itself I will certainly try it.
Reframe your delivery. When we tell people not to do something, that's the first thing they think of.
For example If I tell you not to think of an elephant, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
So here's the solution: Redirect her to other things /activities so it takes her mind off of the bad thing she's about to do.
Tried it and it kinda works but kids can be too stubborn sometimes.
She sounds like a free spirit. Maybe she needs less micromanaging, because kids who feel oppressed will try to break out of it like punching through a paper bag.
She'd probably thrive with tons of freedom
but with strict consequences if she does something dangerous to hurt herself or others.
You said it all.