1. She fights us when it is time for her to sleep
2. She fights us when we ask her to finish her meals
3. She fights us when we tell her "No"
4. She fights us when it is time to put on her diaper and her clothes
5. She fights us when it is time to get out of her bath
6. She fights us when it is time to leave the toy stores
7. She fights us when we tell her to calm down
Before I had any kids, I loathe moms who (1.) Let their kids run around during mealtime. I strongly believe that they should be at the dinner table, seated, finish their meals and say "excuse me" before moving along to whatever they want to do or wait till everyone is done and then leave the table. (2.) I also had something to say about moms who allow their kids too much TV and electronic games. My mom almost lock the TV set with an actual chain and lock (That's the time before you can electronically lock device as such) !
Guess what? I am now that mom I used to loathe!
Actual fact is I just got to do what I have to do as her mom and do what is best for her. Let me explain. Rylee sits with us at the table in her highchair for meals. She does this 3 times a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. She actually LOVES her highchair. When I tell her she needs to get in her high chair as we are going to eat, she actually stands by her highchair patiently while waiting for me to carry her into it! I normally gives her an array of healthy homemade stuff , most of which I make from scratch, low salt low sugar, no msg. On good days she finishes most of her meal, on bad days she would look at them and say "ALL DONE!" REPEATEDLY and when you tell her otherwise , she screams "ALL DONE!" NON STOP and louder as if you will begin to hear her now since she is talking way louder! She stops only when you lift up her tray and begin to unbuckle her, almost instantly. Yup. She is strong willed. So on those days, do you just throw out all her food? Or do you try to feed her in a different setting when you know she is obviously not done and you know she WILL eat the food just a matter of how (in or out of her highchair)! My main concern is that she gets all and more of she needs to grow. Some of you may beg to differ at this point. She won't starve herself some of you might say. I know this little girl, she will go without food if she has another agenda on her mind rather than eating. Of course, I know she won't starve herself but I do not want her to skip meals! I want her to eat healthy and well. It is important that she eats well for both physical and mental development at this tender age. (much less that her weight has gone down to 5 percentile) I do what my intuition as a mother tells me to - unbuckle her from her seat and let her go do what she wants. I then proceed to hand her pieces of food or feed them to her as she plays with her toys or watches TV. Most of the time she finishes every last bit of her meal! Sometimes intervention is needed!
I admit with guilt, we allow too much TV in the day! In our defense though, the programs we chooses are all educational! :P She did learn a bunch from them. Oh well....we will have to limit the time she watches TV programs very soon but for now it frees up a little time for me to do some chores and ... okay, blog! Haha.
So much for my ramble, Rylee is a strong willed feisty girl and we managed her on a day to day basis the best we know how. At 18 months we are already giving her "time-outs" we do foresee more to come! How fun!
