The Stubborn Standoff

Wes and I got to experience the first of, I'm sure, many tests of our patience and discipline a couple nights ago. In an effort to teach Colin to be a little less demanding, bossy, and well, rude, we're trying to teach him to say "please" to be more polite. This is not a new word for him, as he says it quite frequently. We're actually quite proud of the fact that he knows and generally uses both "please" and "thank you" on a regular basis. That is until you ask him to say it when he clearly wants no part of it!

Let me set the scene for you. We're just finishing up dinner and Colin demands, "Mommy, I want down." I simply respond, "Ask nicely and say please."

For whatever reason, he had it in his mind he was, under no circumstance, going to utter that word that night. He cried, we reasoned. He cried, I did other things around the kitchen to occupy my about-to-explode head. He stopped long enough to say he needed to blow his nose. As soon as I walked away from his chair, the crying ensued. I went upstairs to change clothes, he cried some more. I tried to explain it again and gave him an opportunity to whisper it to me or to say it when I wasn't looking. Nope, nothing, nada. For an hour he sat and for an hour he cried. His shirt was soaked, his arms were drenched in tears/drool/snot, the table was wet, and he had to blow his nose 3 times. And then...I caved! There's only so much crying and shrieking one person can physically handle. I felt my shoulder muscles tightening by the millisecond, my head was beginning to spin, and my patience had run out after, oh, the first minute and a half!

Thinking I had lost the battle, I hung my head as I told a friend of the standoff. She quickly reassured me that I hadn't lost, he got the message and would say it next time. I value her parenting advice so much, as she has proven to have a lot of wisdom in her words. I couldn't wait to get home and try it again. Was she right, would he say "please" like a nice, polite little boy? What do you think? Did he do it? Yes he did!! I ran over to him, picked him up, and yelled, "YES!". He quickly mimicked me and repeated "yes" over and over again. Wes told me I got a little carried away and perhaps I did but I was just so glad my hour-long suffering wasn't for naught.

At some point in the hour-long standoff when Wes was trying to reason with him, he informs me that this reminded him of himself when he was little. He said this sounded like something he would have pulled, just so he could "win". Ahh, does that mean there's more of this fun in store for me?!

This picture (and the one above) is somewhat unrelated but look at that face. You can see why it was so hard for me to see him unhappy. I just wanted to give in and pick him up and squeeze him. Thankfully I didn't and he learned his lesson.