Presley 2, Daddy 1 ? ? ? ? ?

A few of my more recent blogs have joked about Presley out smarting daddy.  The most recent was Presley 2, Daddy 0 and just before that I gave you Presley 1, Daddy 0, but this one is different.

One of the hardest things I am discovering with a 3 year old is when to pick and choose my battles.

Presley has started crying when she doesn't get her way.  When she starts crying and throwing a temper tantrum about something that didn't go her way, it is easy to fix what she is crying about and move on so she'll stop crying.  The problem with this is that this teaches her that if she cries, then she'll get her way.  Letting her cry is sometimes harder on me than just fixing her problem so she'll stop crying.  What if we are running late?  What if it really isn't that big of a deal?  Do I still pursue it to make a point?  I’ve looked for help in my manual to raising kids, but then I remembered that neither Presley nor Paxten came with an instruction manual.

This is what happened Thursday morning:

Lora is in New York City so I am getting both girls ready for school by myself.  I came down with P1 and P2 both dressed at 8:14 AM, but they still needed to be fed before we left the house at 8:30.  (Leaving the house at 8:30 is important because of the car line, which gives me only a 15 minute window when I can drop Presley off at school without having to take Paxten out of the car and walking Presley in.  Plus school starts between 8:30 and 8:45, so any time after that and Presley interrupts her class.  Not to mention, Daddy has to work too.)

When we get down stairs, I put P2 in her high chair and immediately open up a Pop Tart for Presley and put it on a plate on her table.  (She doesn’t like them toasted.)

When Presley sees this, she immediately tells me that she wants Dora cereal.

I tell her that we are in a hurry and don’t have time to eat Dora cereal.

She starts crying and tells me that she doesn’t want a Pop Tart because she wants Dora cereal.

(So the battle has started.  I can either give her the cereal, which in honesty takes a lot longer for her to eat, or I can let her cry.  Again, the problem here is that she is already crying a lot so if I give her the cereal, her mind learns that by crying about something even after Daddy told her no, she still got her way.)

Not only do I decide to let her cry, but I pick her up and take her in the guest room just off of the kitchen, turn the light on, and shut the door.  She continues crying for the next 15 minutes.  During that time, I feed Paxten, clean her hands and load her in the car.

I come back inside put the Pop Tart in a Ziploc bag because I know she is going to want it and take it to the car.

Presley is still in the room crying.  I go get her and load her in the car.  She is kicking and screaming the whole way there.  After I buckle her in the car seat, I get in the car to get ready to leave.  At this point, Presley informs me that she is hungry.  I let her know that I have the Pop Tart if she wants it.  She informs me that she does want it, and after I hand it to her, she stops crying and begins eating it.  (End of the battle.  Presley ate what I wanted her to eat and did not get her way by crying.  I want to mention this could have all been avoided if I would have given her a choice, which I usually do, and would have done if we had time to for her to eat cereal, but once she started crying, letting her cry became the only solution unfortunately.)  So I start driving, and I tell Presley that I am taking Paxten to school first to give Presley time to eat her Pop Tart.

After I had already told her I was taking Paxten to school first, Presley told me three, yes 3, different times that she wanted me to take Paxten to school first.  Presley told me well after we had passed her school, then she also told me two more times for good measure on the way to Paxten’s school. Presley is a smart kid.  She obviously knew that she had just given in to Daddy, so I guess she wanted to feel like Daddy was doing something that she wanted him to do also.

If you are still reading this, then I figure you’ll continue reading too, so you are going to be rewarded with something funny Presley did on the way to Paxten’s school.  Keep in mind Presley does not want to do anything that Daddy asks her to do because of what just happened.  Usually she likes it when I point out the Post Office whenever we go by it because I take her in there with me at times to check the mail.  So on the trip to take Paxten to school first, we pass the Post Office:

Me:  Presley we are about to drive by the Post Office.

P1:  I don’t want to drive by the Post Office.

Me:  Well we’re coming up on it.  (Trying to make her laugh)  Don’t look at it.  Presley, don’t look at the Post Office.  There it is.  We are passing it now.  Don’t look at it.

(While trying to hold back a grin, P1 looks at the Post Office, then immediately looks down)

Me:  Aha Presley, you looked at the Post Office.

P1:  No I didn’t. I was just looking at the window.

By the time I got Presley to school, I had to walk her in, and she was fine.  I hate it when she cries.  I just want to hold her and make it all better, but I know in the long run I’ll pay for it.  I told this story to my father on Thursday morning, and I told him that she was so hard headed. He cracked up laughing saying he can remember going through the same things with me…. Surely not?

P.S.  For the first time ever Presley asked for cereal for dinner the evening after this took place, and you know what, she got her Dora cereal... Presley 3, Daddy 1 ????????????????????