Mommy Moment |The Test Of A Strong Willed Child

Happy Monday friends! You know why I like Monday? Ok I’ll let you guess again… you give up? Ok I’ll give in and let you know. Monday’s are for my “mommy moments” ! If you’re a mama, you are creating loads of moments with your kiddos. Now, I didn’t say all of those moments would be all fun and dandy. You will have times when your child that you spent hours in labor with decides to test you in more ways than you can count!
So, what the heck do you do when these test come about? How do you handle stubbornness, rudeness, arguments, disobeying, or constant tattle-tailing around the clock? Well, I’m learning that if you yell at your kids, it not only makes them feel small, but it stresses you out even more and doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Some days, I have to close myself in the bathroom to just breathe because the one thing I don’t want to do is constantly yell. I just need a quick moment to say time out, this mama needs to go count to 30!

Over the weekend, we had pizza night and we were preparing ourselves for picky eater number 3 – our six year old Rèinah. Y’all, let me tell you, my child had the world’s TINIEST slice of pizza like EVER! We sat at the table around 8 or 8:30 pm. She didn’t finish that pizza until 10:54 pm!! WHAAA…?? No, I’m not joking! This is real life people! The struggle is REAL!! Rèinah was taking these tiny bites and all she had to do was take 3 big bites and she’ll be done.. just THREE!!

Rèinah sat at the table crying, sniffing air for roughly 100,000,000 times I mean it was just sad! She just kept saying she didn’t want it, but she was missing the entire point. The rule of thumb in our home is, everyone will try a new food. Since it was new to her, It wasn’t even a whole slice! I hit it thinking she would just get over it & eat it so she can eat her mac & cheese that was waiting for her in the fridge. Boy was I wrong! All I wanted to do was get the dishes done, nurse our Rosie & head to bed! But instead, I was being tested by a strong willed six year old. What do I do during a test? I stick to my guns that’s what!

If you tell your child, hey you’re not eating anything you want until you eat this new food, then that’s the bottom line! Don’t get sucked up in the tears, IT’s A TRAP! You stand firm, hold your ground & next thing you know, your child has sucked it up and finished everything you have asked of them. And they can sit and enjoy what they’ve wanted the entire time of the test!

So, know that you got this! And if you have picky eaters, introduce 1 small new thing every week so your child can break out of that shell.