Eve was happily munching
on a piece of bread at break, so I thought I could have a biscuit and
we'd munch together. Hah! As soon as she saw my biscuit she threw her
bread on the floor, and pointed to the box where her (special
sugar-reduced) biscuits are kept.
Now I'm not against her
eating biscuits as a general rule, but the bread was left over from
breakfast, and I'm not going to let her skip breakfast and catch up
on biscuits mid-morning. So I said, "No!"
and rather meanly went on eating my biscuit. She wailed and whined
and pointed her finger and furrowed her brow, and generally let me
know how unhappy she was … and eventually took the piece of bread I
held back out to her and went on munching as if she'd never stopped.
I think there are several
things I can take away from this episode. One is just how much you
can communicate without words. Another is that being firm can have
the desired effect. And finally, the reassurance that our third child
is healthily developing her sense of self and her personality!
