My 3-year-old has this annoying habit that is driving me crazy: When she doesn't get what she wants, she fake cries.

The fake cry is different from whining, when a child's voice goes into that horrible singsong tone. This is something even more severe and irritating, something I must stop.

It usually goes something like this:

Child is doing something wrong. Mom or dad corrects child. Child fakes a "waaa-ha-ha-ha" sound, makes a sad face and then says her feelings were hurt, only she calls them "mealings."

She also does this when she and her sister are playing and a toy is taken from her or she doesn't get her way. "Waaa-ha-ha-ha" comes bellowing from the playroom as every syllable in the fake cry is punctuated.

I have tried ignoring it. I have tried sending her to a time-out every time she does it. I have tried simply begging her not to do it. I have yelled. And in moments of weakness, I have even asked my older child to just give the younger one the toy because I can't stand to hear her cry.

Nothing seems to work.

Psychologist and parenting expert Randy Cale of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., said any behavior that a parent consistently gives attention to will only grow. So if I continue to acknowledge the behavior by either punishing her or reacting in a way that shows her she is truly getting to me, the crybaby phase will just continue.

"She can see the look on your face. Your energy kind of flows into it," said Cale, who runs the Web site www.terrificparenting.com.

Cale suggested that at the moment I detect the crybaby behavior, I should immediately pull my attention away and either walk out of the room or direct my attention to my other daughter.

"Immediately, within a second, she recognizes that mom and dad have disappeared."

The behavior will probably worsen for several days, but if I want it to disappear I can't engage. Cale suggested the "seeds and weeds" method, meaning I want to weed out the bad behavior and nurture and feed the good.

When the kids are playing nicely, walk by and comment on it. When crybaby is fake crying around my older daughter, invite the daughter who is not out of control to walk out of the room with me.

The message to my children will be that I will invest in moments when they are getting along, not when there is whining, crying or bickering.

"If you give your energy and attention to the moments that you don't want and expect to end up with moments that you do want, it never happens," he said.

And if nothing works, Cale said, try earplugs and an early martini.

Not a bad idea. I think I hear crybaby now.