Good grief. Gabriel has been really easy and cooperative lately, but he reminded us again tonight that when he wants to dig his heels in, he has no equal.
I think it started because I asked him to wash his hands before dinner. He felt he'd washed his hands recently enough, but I insisted anyway. It's a rule, I'm not about to go making judgements on how dirty hands or the length of time or activity engaged upon since the last hand-wash: you wash your hands before dinner.
He was so mad that I had to give him a countdown just to get him to leave the room to go wash his hands, upon threat of losing computer time (something he's been getting daily now that it's summer, a rare thing, and only for programming). Then he sat in the bathroom for 20 minutes until I chased him out with the same threat. Then he sat at dinner and refused to eat for a full 40 minutes, until it was time to clean up. He got a 5-minute respite while Dave to go check something in his car outside, but at the end of that 5 minutes, that was it, dinner's over.
Then he refused to leave the kitchen, put his shoes away, go upstairs to get ready for bath, or do anything without being prompted by the threat of lost computer time. Finally we got tired of pushing him every step of the way and told him that every minute past 8:00 that he's not ready for bed is a day of computer access lost.
He's now 10 minutes past time, with 10 days of computer time lost. Sounds oh so GREAT huh? I can't wait to enforce that one.
An hour and a half long conflict, that's still not over, about not wanting to wash his hands. And don't think for a second that "he'll learn" for next time. Ohhhhh no, if he decides to dig in again, it'll be the same darn thing all over.
That's Gabriel for you. At times like these, I can never decide if I'm madder AT him or madder ABOUT him!
6/20/11
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