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First and foremost, I have to be thankful that they do not live anywhere within driving distance to my house. I think I would go absolutely insane. They have always driven me nuts but now with a two year old, its even worse. Yes, i have a exceptionally fiesty toddler. I know that I am not the only one but I do know that mine is exceptionally headstrong as he has my personality. So, come on parents, give me a little credit here, I know how to deal with him.

So yesterday, he is in one of his particular moods where he is tired from the holiday weekend and doesn't want to do certain things, like take a bath, hold hands when we are in the parking lot, go to sleep, etc. All things that he has to do. We get home and he is filthy from school. When I say filthy, I mean there are black marks on his face from the dirt and his hair is sticky from sweat. I bathe him every night, same routine, some days he's okay with it, some days he's not in the mood for bath, this is just how he is. So he's flipping out, bending his back, screaming his head off, he doesn't want a bath. There is no way to freakin reason with him when he's like this - trust me, people, I have tried my heart out - he just has to get in the bath whether he's crying or not. So I undress him as he cries and we proceed with the bath regardless. My mom, who means well, has every suggestion in the book. "Why don't you try singing?", "do you think he hasn't had enough play time?", "you shouldn't fight him on everything"...Okay, so the last one just got me. He HAS to have a bath, period. He is filthy and cannot sleep this way. Just because he doesn't want to take the bath is no reason to not give it to him, he will have to learn to deal with doing certain things he doesn't want to. It's okay that he doesn't like to do it, he can not like it all he wants but he still has to do it. Now, let me go back and say my parents NEVER made me do anything and NEVER any type of discipline whatsoever. I ran the house. Any of my friends can tell you that. They were astounded at the things I got away with and how my parents were so clueless. This is not going to be my parenting style!!

We get to the restaurant. He doesn't want to hold my hand in the parking lot or be carried. When I even so much as motion to hold his hand he swats at me and starts yelling. When i motion towards picking him up, he swats me, throws himself on the floor and kicks me. I tell him that he can either hold hands or be picked up but he can't walk alone in a parking lot. I try again, same thing so I pick him up and proceed to the restaurant. Along the way he slaps me. I put him in a time out - which he is actually very good at staying put. My dad tries to make funny faces at him while in time out because he doesn't like the fact that my son is crying so I have to yell at him until he complies and walks away (Geez, as if I don't have enough on my hands!). But guess what? After 1 minute of time out, my son got up, hugged and kissed me, walked calmly holding my hand into the restaurant and was well behaved for the rest of the trip!! My dad and grandmother think its mean that I put him in time out because he cries! Can they not see how well it worked?? they said I should fight him on so much. Now, if this was over something stupid like I wanted to force him to eat something that he didn't want, then I could understand. But there is no way, no how, that my kid is going to walk through a busy parking lot without either holding someone's hand or being picked up, this is dangerous! If he slaps me for it, that is not acceptable and it results in a time out. Not to mention, that the time out made him think and he was well behaved the rest of the night!