A Battle of Wills

Last night as I tried to cajole Roman to go potty before bed I got this response:

The look of, "hey crazy lady, it's raining and I am not budging from this dry spot no matter how bad I have to go." After failing to see eye to eye on the matter I reluctantly let him back in. Score: Roman 1, Yvette 0.

But Roman is not the only one I have had a battle of wills with lately. Maddie has reached the age where she wants to challenge everything we tell her to do or not to do. I find myself saying this mantra more often lately: "Because I said so!" Crap, I have officially become my mother! This is one of those things I swore up and down I would NEVER say to MY kids, and now, well.... All tidbits of loving direction (ie. clean up your mess, eat your vegetables, etc.) or things we deny (ie. no, you can't cut your own hair with your craft scissors) are met with the same squealing response, "But whhhhhhyyyyyyyy?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!" I have to consciously refrain myself from rolling my eyes at her. While we deal with this phase I am sure my parents are in a corner snickering, "vengeance is mine!" Now I know the torture I put them through. And I owe them a whopper of an apology!

But I just have to remind myself that this is only a phase sure to be replaced by something much more annoying that will have us reminiscing, "remember how great it was when she only asked but whhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy?????"

Despite all of this I still think she is a great kid. It is her job to torture us, otherwise we would not have the opportunity to actually practice that whole unconditional love thing. It is good to know that Maddie only does this to her parents. It is much more troublesome when kids give attitude to anyone and everyone. Yes, she needs to respect her parents, but it is alarming when kids don't have respect for anyone. At some point all kids challenge their parents. Nobody tells you how ugly the trenches of motherhood can be!