Control

"Zac, Mommy can't feed you or you will lose your job."

Tonight was a bit of a power struggle with Zac. It started with dinner and then worked it's way into bathtime, pj's, bedtime story and teeth brushing.

Here's the dinner story...

So, Zac refuses to eat his food and orders his mom to, "Feed me." I calmly (and believe it or not it was calm) said, "No, Zac. You need to eat your own food. You can have some cookies when you eat your food (no comments on the bribe, please!). For ten minutes he sat at the table without touching his fork and over and over again demanded that I feed him. Now for those of you that have adopted I know that the books say we need to feed them for attachment. This episode was NOT about attachment, it was about control. So, finally I set the timer and told him that he had five minutes to eat the rest of his meal and then I would take his plate away.

All the while, Hallie is giving me a fit about how awful I am being to her brother. I go on to tell her that, "Hallie this is not about dinner this is a control issue. Do you know what that means?"

Hallie: "No."

Mom: "It's like this...if I let Zac always order me around and get his way then when we grows up and has a boss, if that boss asks him to do something he doesn't want to do Zac might throw a fit and get fired by his boss. I am helping him to learn this now when he is little so that he doesn't lose his job when he is older."

Zac: "Mom, feed me!!!! Scream!!"

Hallie: "Zac, Mommy can't feed you or you will lose your job."