The Persistent 3 Year Old

I have just encountered one of the true joys of parenthood.  I have often said about my children that they are very persistent, but I have to admit that Reagan sometime takes the cake on that one.    We are always hearing about how this is a chosen generation and they have to have strong spirits so that they can make it during these turbulent times.  Now the big question is how we help these strong spirits to make those good and right choices that will help them throughout their lives. 

We just returned from Los Alamos today (December 26th).  We had a great time with famliy over the Christmas holiday (more on that later).  We saw that a fun movie was playing at the dollar theater and we thought that we would give it a try.  We packed up the kids and headed to the movie.  Once there, Reagan started to complain that she wanted a sucker.  I used to keep a stash of little suckers in my purse, but those have been long gone for a while.  Then she looked and stared around at the other people and all of the popcorn.  She then told me that she wanted some popcorn.  I wish it stopped there.  Instead, she kept on loudly insisting that she wanted and had to have some popcorn.  I took her out of the theater and had a little talk with her.  I told her that we would not be having popcorn and that she had to make a choice.  We could either go back in and watch the movie (without popcorn), or we could go home and go to bed.  She of course promised that she would go back and watch the movie.  The movie had not yet started, but we headed back in.  A second after we returned, she started up again asking for popcorn.  Again, Reagan does not know how to demand things silently.  I waited for a few minutes, hoping that she would calm down.  No such luck.  I finally decided that I had to carry through with what I had said.  I told Jake that I would pick him and the boys up after the movie and I carried a crying and struggling Reagan out of the theater.  She was howling and telling me how she promised to be obedient and we could go back into the movie.  I told her that she had lost her chance and we needed to go.  

I then buckled her into the car and all the time she was trying to convince me that she could go back into the movie.  Getting on that seatbelt was not easy.  The whole way home she was telling me that she was going to walk back to the movie (yeah, it is only about 10 miles away from our house).  I got her home and decided to put her in the timeout chair (the chair of despair – as we like to call it), so that I could contain her.  The timeout chair is just an old car seat.  I buckled her in and put her in her room.  Then I shut the door and came out.  Not 2 seconds later, she was out of the room and I could not believe my eyes.  My little girl was still in the carseat, but she was walking with the car seat still attached to her back.  How did she come up with that one?  I then put her back in her room, still in the carseat and locked the door.  She continued to bang on the door and plead her case until  she finally cried herself to sleep.  All the while, she was telling me that she was happy and obedient and that she should be able to come out.  With Reagan, and with other of our children, we try to get them to calm down enough to smile.  Reagan was trying to smile and tell me she was happy while the tears were flowing down her cheeks.  What a girl!

Part of me was upset with this behavior and the other part of me had to take a quick moment to take a picture of this little girl.  Goodbye, chair of despair.