[smattopenophia]

I have a 4 year old daughter and I wanted to know if it was possible that she could be telling us she will do something but actually she knows that she will not do it when the time comes. Here is the story:

We took her to try out a pee-wee martial arts class through our gym. She really enjoyed it. So we signed a contract. I took her to the third class and she was the only kid there for 5 minutes until others came. Big smiles, talked to the Master like they were old friends, happy and energetic to participate. At this point we decided to buy her the uniform with the belt.

She has now refused to go to 3 classes. One she didn't leave the house while having a tantrum. One when I took her. She put on her outfit and we walked there taking about it the whole way. Once we arrived... No go. There was a different Master that day too. No amount of positive or negative reinforcement would get her to participate. Finally my wife took her yesterday, same scenario. Seemed happy to go, but upon arrival she refused (again there was the different Master). She spent the rest of the day in bed and we said no Halloween. At this point we have invested quite a bit of money and are now in a contract that would cost $180 to break plus the $50 outfit. When she showed no remorse or care about missing out on Halloween (incredibly nonchalant, she said something like "I'll just stay here and play with my stuff") we proceeded to remove a significant portion of her toys, dolls and blankets (she has a 2 year old sister so we can't remove everything). We told her we would have to sell her things to pay for the class. And we keep "adding" to the stuff to sell. This seemed to have an effect.

At this point I'm at a loss. Is it the clothes/uniform she is now supposed to wear? She just says that she doesn't like it anymore. I might say it was the different Master but the first time the tantrum took place at home. Again my question: Is it possible that she says one thing at home knowing that she will not be participating once she gets there? And are we handling the discipline in an effective way? Any wisdom would be very much appreciated.