Strong Willed

Yeah, with that title I could be talking about me, but I'm not!

It seems that while Kate was sick she was storing all that energy she was conserving. She has been quite the handful this week. I never know what’s next. I thought she’d learned her lesson about salt and pepper shakers (see here), but I guess I was naive to think that. This week I found her lying on the kitchen table with them. I will say at least she wasn’t eating it this time, she was just drawing in the “dust.”

She’s been defiant and screaming a lot. That’s hard because when her volume goes up, I find mine doing the same. Some of it is an attempted to be heard over her, but after a second I realize that yelling back isn’t helping. It’s hard. She doesn’t seem to follow an instruction unless it’s loud or has a consequence attached to it. Or both. And sometimes not even then.

She’s bright and she’s strong willed. This is going to be a battle, but hopefully we’ll get through this now, so that as she grows older she’s willing to submit to her boundaries, at least most of the time. Justin and I were both pretty compliant. My sister probably doesn’t fit that category as well, but she was not so loud and in your face about defying the rules, so we have little practical experience with it.

I'm hoping that her stick-to-it-iveness will serve her well. I know it's gotten me through a lot of difficult times.

And it's hard to discipline when she looks like this. Please excuse the mess. Justin emptied out our only storage in the house looking for a book while I was out and got this picture of Kate in his old hat.

We do know that God wants us to submit to Him. Since He is our heavenly Father, we know that the example we, as her earthly parents have her abide by may be how she views her relationship with Him. It’s a big challenge, but hopefully someday Kate will be a blessing for all. Goodness knows she’s full of fun and joy. So long as she can find a way to reign in some of her wild nature and defiance, she will truly be a great young lady. And hopefully she won’t still be sitting in time out when she’s thirty. Just joking, of course—sort of.