Chris blurts out of nowhere, "I wanna take my cars to Robin's (his babysitter) because Zack does. (a 7 yr old at the sitter that Chris calls his best friend)."
Me- "You can take a couple, but you can't take ALL of your cars."
Chris- "Okay. I wanna take all of my race cars."
This is the point in our chats that I just shut up and watch what happens. Because right at this exact point is where no matter what I say, he will argue until...well, I've never seen the end so I can't really say.
So I continue blow-drying & flat-ironing my hair...
Chris- "Where are the bags? Oh wait, here's a bag!" (finds plastic bags stuffed between refrigerator & wall)
This is where I realize this isn't going to be an easy fight to win.
About 5 minutes later....
Chris- (Hauling a very heavy & full plastic bag). "Here are the cars I'm taking to Robin's."
Me- "You can take 3. Not all those, that is way too many."
Chris- "Nooo...THIS is too many (gestures with his arms spread wide open)."
Me- "Nooo, what you have in that bag is too many cars. You can pick 3. That is all."
Grumbles from the 4 year old & dragging the bag behind him, he trots away.
10 minutes later....
"Mom!!! Come look! This is how many I'm taking to Robin's!"
I walk into the dining room where he has many cars all over the floor with probably 4 less in the bag than before.
Me- "No, that's still way too many, Chris. You know how to count to three. Pick 3 and that is all. End of story."
Okay so he continues this off & on for at least another hour. While I'm preparing a casserole to bake, while I'm getting dressed, while Noah naps...etc etc etc. Oh, somewhere in there, he gets a gift in the mail from a far away friend so that distracts him....UNTIL we are getting ready to leave.
It's 12:20 pm.
Needless to say, he still hasn't narrowed down his search.
Me- "We are leaving. Pick 3 out or none at all, let's go." He picks out three, then asks Noah if he wants to take one. Umm, no, nice try, buddy.
He then goes to put them in his bag & I say- "Let me see them." There's four, I tell him to drop one. He drops them all & runs in the corner yelling, 'YOU pick them out, YOU do it!!"
So I pick up 3, toss them in the bag & say, "LETS GO!"
He stomps & cries, "I wanna take MOOOOOREEEE!!!"
Me- "See ya, we're leaving." He follows me reluctantly out the door.
Fast forward to us arriving at Robin's. One of his friends meets us at the door & Chris dives into his bag to find the 3 cars. I watch him unzip the front pocket of his bag, pull out a car THAT I DID NOT PUT THERE & say, "Oh, look, there was one in there!" UHHH NO, he totally planned that out!
I grab it without a pause & say, "Nope, I said three." & toss it into my purse.
Now some of you may think that I should have just let him win this one at the beginning. But I'm not sure you understand how my Christopher works. His life revolves around trying to out-smart me. I'm not sure if he's an average 4 year old or not....but I'm not joking at all when I say that his mission is to outsmart, undermine & sometimes flat out disrespect me. It is exhausting...very very very exhausting.
Just thought I'd share just one of my daily
2 comments:
I'm not sure if it's "normal" or not....I'm not the best judge of that since my 4 year old has always been delayed. But I'll tell you one thing, that kid is friggin' smart!!! And I totally agree with you on how you handled that situation. Good work momma!
Too funny.
You are going to have to watch that one. Clever boy.
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