(Written by the Wizard)
As we sit at the dinner table our youngest one cries. He is not interested in eating and when given any food he just throws it on the floor for the dog to eat. Dominic does this a lot. He very well may be hungry but he is a super stubborn little boy and when he does not feel like being in his chair he chooses not to eat. My wife and I continue to eat. We attempt to give Dominic some food hoping he will give in and start eating. “Here Dominic, you like potatoes, try it.” The potato goes on the floor. “Dominic eat this piece of chicken.” The chicken goes on the floor. On Saturday Dominic did this exact routine. We wanted to go out and get some odds and ends from Sam’s Club so after dinner we hopped in the van and went for the ride. Sue brought along Dominic’s dinner and at various times throughout the trip tried to feed it to him. He was not having it. Our total trip time was about two and half hours. That stubborn little boy waited until we got home and eventually made us give in. He had to eat something! So while he curled up in Sue’s lap he munched on gluten free pretzels and water.

Ryan, being the observant one that he is, sees how things happen with Dominic and his stubborn ways. While Ryan is not anywhere near as stubborn he realizes how he can leverage things into getting what he wants. I am much tougher on Ryan and usually make him do things how he is expected. But that certainly does not stop him from trying. Usually, before lunch or dinner Ryan is playing. Either we are playing some sort of game like hockey or Wii or he is playing by himself. When lunch or dinner time comes around and he does not want to eat he will start complaining that his stomach or chest hurts. Normally this would cause alarm but it only seems to happen just before he is about to eat and after he needs to stop playing.

These boys are really learning how to manipulate people starting with their parents. I’m sure many parents out there have their own stories of similar habits from their kids.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 am and is filed under Daily Life, Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.