"What I can't figure out is how parents who are as smart as you guys are can't figure out that if you've told me a thousand times to do something, and I'm still not doing it, I'm obviously not going to..."
(This was the same child who, at the age of 2, when I, in utter frustration said aloud, but under my breath, "What part of "No!" don't you understand?", looked up at me and calmly answered "The part that applies to me.")
Wow, aculady, that sounds just like my dd5. GeoMamma, I am grateful you asked this question, it certainly makes all of us feel better that we are not alone. I have a "pusher" as well. I'd like to think she got a little better by 5? Or we just learned to let it go and choose our battles, maybe? Taking "no" for an answer is hard for these kids, and we have debates over the underlying parental authority--as in "it's my body and I should be deciding if I should put my pajama on," and other equally interesting conversations. My dd understood early that being a kid means you are "some kind of inferior being," as she says, because other people tell you what to do all the time. And she argues that it's the society's fault that kids cannot be independent, since kids did not make the law about compulsory schooling and they can't work and drive, LOL. Thus, the world is totally unfair to kids and they should certainly get to vote...Her dad's a litigator and we're both pg, but I tell 'ya this kid could out-argue the Supreme Court. And she's not ill-intended or defiant without reason--actually most of the time she's quite funny--and I can tell it's part of her asychronicities. It cannot be easy to think/understand things at the level these kids are without having the emotional maturity to deal with that understanding and LET STUFF GO for a change.
