Stubbornism

Okay, so I know that isn't really a word or an official condition, but so help me, if I had the time and energy and really cared enough, I would lobby to make it one. Max has it. He has a terminal case of it. He is, hands down, the most stubborn person I know. More than myself, more than my parents... it's almost scary.

Two things have happened recently that have led me to this diagnosis. Well, a lot of things actually, but two big things. Fist of all, Maddox has entered into the dreaded TERRIBLE TWOS. I actually don't think the terrible twos are that bad. It's the terrible twos combined with stubbornism that makes it freakishly scary.

Incident #1
This happened about two months ago on a typical weekday morning. I was finishing getting ready to go run errands or whatever it was I was doing that day and Max had carried in a bowl of Cheerios he had been working on that morning (sans milk). He sat on the floor of our bedroom and dumped the whole bowl on the floor. I said, "Max, that's not nice. Please pick them up and put them back in the bowl." Little did I know, that that simple request would turn into a 45 minute battle of wills. I sat there for, yes you read correctly, 45 minutes trying to get him to pick up the Cheerios that he had purposely dumped out onto the floor and put them back in his bowl. He had a couple tantrums, laughed and thought it was funny, tried to run away about 197 times, but I DID NOT give in. I stood my ground and a mere 45 minutes later, he put them back in the bowl.

Incident #2
We were giving Max a bath and he threw a tantrum for no reason. He wouldn't sit down and he was just screaming and screaming. He finally calmed down and sat in the tub a good 10 minutes later and we wanted him to say sorry for his behavior. He would not say it. Now, I know he can say the word, he can repeat a lot of words and does so regularly. He is just so dang stubborn he wouldn't do it. And of course, I wouldn't give up. I just kept putting warm water in the bath so he wouldn't freeze. About 20 minutes later, he finally said it (well, he signed it which was good enough since he wouldn't even do that).

There have been many more incidents over the past few months that can attest to his condition of stubbornism. I fear for the teenage years. Actually, I fear tomorrow and the next day, wondering what he'll decide to be stubborn about then, and how long it will take me to break him down. But I won't give up! As super nanny Jo Frost often says (and this is a paraphrase), parents have to show that they are the authority in the house and what they say goes. I'm not breaking his spirit, just his stubborn little will power.