The answer is a resounding “no”.\u00a0 “So why did you do that?”\u00a0 “I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
This is the most recent discussion between me and my 5 1\/2 year old, Hattie.\u00a0 I seem to remember asking my older daughter the exact same thing at this age….<\/p>\n
I think most children have a distinct period of stubbornness.\u00a0 If your child has never had a period of stubbornness, please do not tell me.\u00a0 I don’t want to know.\u00a0 And for goodness’ sake, don’t say it out loud – it could start at any moment!!\u00a0 Anyway, for some children it is the terrible 2s, 3s for others.\u00a0 For us, it is 4 1\/2 to 6.\u00a0 It’s a LONG period with a LOT of stubbornness.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, I know that children have to discover their own identity apart from parents and siblings.\u00a0 But I also know that as parents it is our job to set limits and teach our children about making good decisions and accepting the consequences of their actions, whether good or bad.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 I just realized that I might watch too much Dr. Phil…<\/p>\n
One of my friends once said that she wanted her home to be a place where her children felt free to be themselves without being judged.\u00a0 She is a smart<\/em> woman. I didn’t even realize that was something I desired until I read it!<\/p>\n Still, we struggle between setting rules and allowing freedoms.\u00a0 After having the above dialogue with Hattie for what seems like the 1000th time, I started to question the rules.\u00a0 Is it really important to stay in your seat during meals?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Is it important to be kind to others and try to remember (and<\/em> follow) the golden rule?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Is it critical to be reminded daily how much you are loved.\u00a0 YES.\u00a0 Is life fair?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 That is the most difficult thing we are dealing with in our house at the moment.\u00a0 Why did (insert name of choice here) get a piece of gum at school and I didn’t?\u00a0 Why does she get to have a birthday party in the summer and mine is always in the winter?\u00a0 Why does she………….?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, “because” is no longer a sufficient answer.\u00a0 My question is, why do these questions and problems always seem to come up when I am exhausted, busy or stressed?\u00a0 Because life isn’t fair.\u00a0 That is so difficult to understand….even for me…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The answer is a resounding “no”.\u00a0 “So why did you do that?”\u00a0 “I don’t know.” This is the most recent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[31,28,30,27,29,26,25],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-random-thoughts","tag-consequences","tag-dr-phil","tag-freedom","tag-golden-rule","tag-rules","tag-stubbornness","tag-trouble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}