Ok. So I love my children SOOO much...but I need some advice. Samuel who was 4 in May is one of those kids that loves and I mean LOVES to talk. You really are never sure what is going to come out of his mouth. His soaks up everything he sees and hears, and then he verbally thinks through it all... Lets just say, we laugh a lot and also look each other and wonder how fast we can change the subject sometimes. Lately, he has been pushing our buttons hard... Example 1: he is sitting at the dinner table alone right now as I am typing this, because he is the last one eating. I have cleaned up the kitchen and now he just told me his hand is too tired to feed him. He then proceeded to hold his arm up in the air and then let it drop... All this because he doesn't want to eat anymore... Example 2: In one of my wonderful parenting moments I had my finger pointed at him and not happily telling him to do something and he told me me that I needed to put my finger down that it wasn't nice. Example 3: One day he told us that time out isn't too bad because you just sit by yourself for a couple minutes and then you can get up and play. How do I respond to this? Example 4: We tried taking away reading before bed as a punishment one night and then he told us as we were putting him to bed that is was ok that we didn't read because he had a really long day day and he was really tired. It gets under my skin but my mom says it is payback because I was exactly the same way. The examples could go on forever. Does anyone have any advice for us and how we can discipline a child who really seems to think through things but who really keeps my blood boiling...I love him sooo much. I don't want to crush that spirit but he continues to be very defiant.
