A battle of wills.....I feel like I am loosing.

Madeline, God love her soul, is so far my most trying child. While she is incredibly smart and she totally cracks me up, she is very high maintenance. She is that child who always needs to be tended to. If I am getting a shower, she'd the one that has to come in and ask a question, every time. If we are driving somewhere she probably asks 25 questions compared to Anna and Gideon asking like 5. Out of my 3 little ones she is the first to complain, take a toy or push. She is the one that consistently sneaks out of her bed and disobeys. She is also the first to apologize and seem genuinely sorry, but...... Over the last few months we have been dealing with lying from her, and she is good at it. She has gotten better at being truthful, which is good, but occasionally we still get situations like this morning.

The kids were eating breakfast this morning and Madeline did not want her food. In general my food policy is that if you don't want to eat, fine, but no food until the next meal. Madeline gets this rule and usually handles getting no snacks just fine. This morning though I knew she was not eating just because she was being picky and I told her I wanted her to finish (it was only 1/2 a slice of whole grain bread with apple butter and some banana slices). She refused to finish and I told her she had to sit there until she ate it or until lunch (for the record, she sat until lunch one other time about 3 weeks ago). Truly, I do usually like to avoid this eating battle if possible, but it is a struggle for me. I HATE the kids wasting food (which is why I try to go light on the portions and then they can have more if they want it), but to some extent I think kids will eat if they are hungry. I don't really like the whole "you must eat everything on your plate" mentality. Ugh, like I said, it is a struggle. Anyways, (I obviously digress) Madeline refused to eat and said she'd just sit there until lunch. Well, of course she just whines and cries, etc., etc. She heard Anna and Gee watching cartoons and I think that pushed her over the edge. I was sitting at the counter with my back to her and she came up to me and said "I ate it all" and showed me her empty plate. I was very surprised and my first response was that she was lying. It had only been like maybe a minute or two since I had last looked at her. I looked her in the eyes and asked very forcefully "Madeline, are you lying to me." 3 separate times she very convincingly said she was not lying and she ate it all. She was so convincing that even though I thought is was impossible for her to have downed her food that fast, I was going to believe her. One last time I said "Madeline, if you are lying to me you will get many spankings and spend your morning in your bed, where did you put your food?" She pointed to the bathroom and sure enough she had dumped her food in the trash can. I felt more defeated than I thought I would be. At least she ended up telling the truth, but those "where have I gone wrong" thoughts got to me more than they normally would. I know that Madeline is just EXTREMELY strong willed and EXTREMELY head strong, so I think situations like this morning are just part of dealing with a child like that, but it is still hard and frustrating for me. I grow weary sometimes of dealing with her antics........

I need to say though, that I have been blessed with 5 very different children. Yes, Madeline is certainly the most trying of the 3 little ones right now, but I honestly would not change her God given personality if I could. I love her little fire lit spirit, but trying to train that spirit sometimes completely exhausts me.

Julie