stubborn vs. stubborn

Parenting a child whose genes from both her mother and father have pre-programmed her to be extremely stubborn is tough. Haha. Thankfully I think I am the most stubborn out of the 3 of us, so when it comes to discipline I never give in.

But I am proud to say I had some success last night. Ryleigh wanted to walk to the duck pond in our complex, and go feed bread to the ducks. So I said, "ok, just sit down so I can put your shoes on and we can go".

You would think a simple command like "sit down" is easy to do.... not with my kid. Anytime I try to get her to sit still to get dressed or do her hair she runs off and wants me to chase her. It was cute the first couple of times, but I refuse to chase her around every time we need to leave the house.

So I said, "Ryleigh if you do not sit down we are not going to feed the ducks".... she continued to run around. Until I went in the kitchen and started cleaning, and she realized I was serious.

Then she turned on the water works. So I gave her one more chance. Thankfully she sat down and let me put her shoes on. But I also sat and explained to her that she needs to listen to me when I ask her to do something.

Well, this morning I knew I did something right because Ryleigh saw the loaf of bread sitting on the counter and repeated the "lesson" I gave her. She told me that she had to sit nicely so I could put her shoes on, so she could go feed the ducks some bread, and to be a good girl. She remembered everything from last night! I guess my disciplining actually worked. Woohoo!