Strong-Willed Child

I have said before that Little Girl is a strong-willed child. I think those reading may chuckle to themselves, thinking they know what I mean by that. Whatever you're thinking, multiply it by at least 3. Now add 27, and then you're getting close to Little Girl's "strong-willedness factor". She challenges me on things that should not be a struggle.

Yesterday she screamed bloody murder every time I put her on the potty. Well, it had been hours in some cases since she'd gone, and it was going to come out sooner or later, and I wanted whatever it was to end up in the potty. I thought she was balking about potty. I missed the memo yesterday. She wasn't up for ANYTHING I suggested yesterday. We finally had a "come to Jesus" moment in the car (I did "pull this car over"!!) and she decided to comply for the most part after that. And she had a good potty day yesterday too. Only one accident. (I do question if it's accidental with her. She seems to have pretty good control. But that's a different issue.)

I was hoping that today would be better than yesterday as far as her obedience goes. Actually, it's not even about obedience, it's about general cooperation. Today she wanted to go out and ride bikes. She rides her trike really well, but she has a little bike with training wheels that she needs to learn to ride, so we went out and she got on the bike. She would not pedal forward. She insists upon pedaling backward, which is the brake on this bike. I tried to give her instructions, move her feet to get the idea across, whatever I could think of to get her to pedal the bike the right way. She screamed and kicked and threw a gigantic fit. I was trying to help her, and she was acting like I was trying to ruin her fun. If she only knew the fun I was trying to teach her...

My patience in these instances is not very long. When it's an obedience thing, and she absolutely HAS to obey (like getting in the car and buckling up in the car-seat), I force the issue, man-handle her if I have to (parents, you know what I mean, bucking the car-seat is non-negotiable), and go on with my business. But when it's a matter of me trying to teach her something fun, I gave her a second chance after she calmed down a bit, and then when she blew up at me again, I quit. It's not worth the frustration, and my getting angry with her over something inconsequential. How she treats me is not inconsequential, whether or not she learns to ride a bike today is inconsequential. She had another massive fit when I took the helmet off her and took the bike back inside the garage and closed the garage door. (I didn't leave her outside, but it was tempting.)

I will not be the one to teach this kid to drive. I'll let her dad have that fun. I seriously doubt she'll have a personality makeover in the next 13 years. I'm not sure our relationship can survive that kind of challenge. At three years old, kids are supposed to think that grown-ups know everything, and yet she won't listen to me. How is it going to be when she's a teenager and she thinks I don't know anything. I have been around the block a time or two, on a bike and behind the wheel of a car, whether or not she believes that.

The song in my head today is a weird one. Well, it's not weird like yesterday, but thanks to VH1's "I Love the 80's" series which we watched Sunday afternoon, I've got Toto's "Rosanna" in my head.