Toothpaste battles

My morning consisted of me battling with Taylor for 20 minutes. It all started when she had fixed her hair just right with a headband (and by right, I mean disheveled with a headband shoved in; but to her: perfect) and it was time to brush her teeth. She started whining saying that her hair was going to get messed up if she brushed her teeth and that she frankly was NOT going to do it today. You should of seen the attitude. My daughter, the 14 year old, who cares how her hair looks!?! It felt like I was arguing with a teenager...she is SO strong willed this child of mine. I wonder where she gets it from?!? (Hmmmm...oh yea. Me.)

So it was back and forth for a while. And then I remembered I'm the parent, and in a one word directive said,"brush" and walked out of the bathroom.

I could not get out of there fast enough. I retreated to my bedroom and sat on the edge of my bed near to tears of frustration. Why can't she just do it? Was I this difficult? Did I always make a big fuss when asked to do things?? (Yes. Yes I did.)

I gave in to the realization that she is her mothers daughter, and if I want to survive the next 20 years, I need to just deal with it. "Good pep talk" I told myself.

I went back into the bathroom to check on her. I knew she hadn't been brushing her teeth because she had been whimpering while I was in the bedroom. "did you brush?", I asked in the most patient voice I could muster.

"NO!!!!!" she yelled. After that she lost it. 15 minutes of screaming about her hair, and yelling about not brushing her teeth. It was insane. Yea, you know...my kid gets possessed in the mornings, and screams bloody murder. Doesn't everyone's kids do that?!?!

At that point it was no use to try to reason with her. She'd flipped her lid, there's no reasoning when that happens. Instead I called for backup.

I dialed my poor dear unsuspecting husband. "hello?" he asked seemingly unaware of what was going on.
"Taylor won't brush her teeth and is now--" "I'm sorry I can't hear a word you're saying, all I hear is Taylor screaming, what's going on??! Let me talk to her".

The look on her face when I handed her the phone was priceless. She put it to her ear. I could tell she was trying to listen because her wailing had turned into quiet sobs. She kept nodding. "yea" she said a few times in between sniffles. And then that was it. She handed the phone back to me, walked back into the bathroom without a word. At that point my husband had hung up because he needed to get back to work. I waited for her to come back out before asking her.

I was fixing her breakfast (which now consisted of toasted bagel with butter and orange juice because the crying fit took all my extra breakfast making time) and tried not to look at her. Tried to not make a big deal of it. Tried to just continue on with the morning as if nothing had happened. Be cheerful, but not too cheerful, she knows when you're fake. Shes four, not stupid, I thought.

I gave her her bagel and orange juice, and gave a nudge to the table. As she sat down, without looking at her, I asked. So....what did papa say?

"I need to bwush my teef" she replied in the cutest way possible.

..............

Are you kidding? That's it? That was all he said? I told you that!?! I could've said it a few more times if you wanted me to! I didn't say anything, but I wanted to. So badly.

"oh. Okay" I said to her

I stayed pretty quiet the rest of the morning up until drop off at school.


My kid the teen: