Thursday, October 1, 2009

Shake on it

“Ok, I have a deal!” Emma says (about 20 times a day). She knows what she wants and goes after it. She pushes every button and tries every angle until one of us goes crazy!

I don’t get it. I rarely take her up on her deals but she keeps trying! Her “deals” usually consist of her getting something, but not having to do anything or give anything for what she wants. Why would make such a deal? But she persists… and persists… boy is she stubborn!!

Everyone says she’s just like me. I see some of myself in her. I know I am stubborn, but am I REALLY that stubborn too? I know I have that wild card Disch gene in me that trumps the calmness of the Wilcoxons, but come on… really?!?!

There are some days that I just can’t handle her stubbornness. But, I fight right along side of her and am NOT about to give her want she wants. (Sound familiar?) I can’t let her know that if she fights enough that she’ll get her way. But I also don’t want to teach her to be stubborn like her mother… Oh what a balancing act! Usually I have to threaten to take something away to get what I want. What does that teach her?!?! AGH!

Tuesday night, she fought and fought to stay up late. Bed time is bed time in my house… especially when it’s a school night. Most nights there’s no problem. But after ten minutes of fighting, I was sick of trying to get her to get her jammies on. So I told her she had two minutes to get them on and get upstairs or she would have to go to bed a half hour early the next night. Needless to say (because she’s so stubborn), she was still in her clothes ten minutes later. It still took another ten minutes before she was tucked in.

Last night came with an early bed time. She got her jammies on really nice when I said it was time for bed, so did Lexi. We walked upstairs and Lexi was just finishing brushing her teeth. I told her to go back downstairs and wait until I come back down so we could get Emma into bed.

You would have thought I just shot the dog!! Emma falls to the floor screaming. She was convinced that because she had to go to bed early, Lexi did too… she didn’t think that was fair. I told her that I didn’t think it was fair that she had thrown a half hour fit the night before - that if she’s going to act naughty, she will be punished - and that Lexi had nothing to do with it so she is not going to be punished.

She proceeded to cry with that “poor me” fake cry while laying in bed for the next half hour. Darren and I tried our best to ignore her. As soon as Lexi was tucked snug in her bed, of course, everything was fine.

She can be such a sweetheart. But she can be such a little turd too! Maybe she IS just like me!!

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