Sunday Morning Baby Pic

I chose this picture because it’s not always sunshine and rainbows.

We are working with Ella right now. She is 5. She is intense. She is a girl who knows what she wants and won’t give up until she gets it. If I can just keep this awesome drive she has channeled so she doesn’t fly off the side of the road she will make it to the top.

It’s hard.

Photo By Marcy Maloy

Any advice?

Follow on Bloglovin

11 responses

  1. Everyone of my kids are extremely driven, headstrong and tenacious. I think it is a wonderful quality. I dont have any advice because I think you and Steve are amazing parents who in my opinion don’t need the advice.
    :D
    I have gotten a HUGE reality check with Arabella, she is a such a GIRL and also very headstrong. She makes up her mind and that’s it! She hated her carseat and I went no where for 2.5 months until we got her a new one… I know nothing about girls because boys have been my thing for the last 11 years before her. I want some girl advice from YOU. wink.

    • Yes, girls. I think they are pretty similar to boys really, but what I have heard is they can actually get a lot louder!! Girls are fun. They can be girlie but also into sports and bugs.

      Yes, I think this is a wonderful quality of Ella’s. She is just always at “10″ if you know what I mean. Extremes.

  2. I agree. My daughter could have written the book on how to be A STRONG WILLED CHILD. Once as a teenager, she got so mad at me for some perceived wrong I had done, she didn’t speak to me for 18 months. She went and lived with her Dad. I knew she’d come around so I just side-stepped her anger and waited until she got tired of being mad. Now we are super close again.

    A Strong Willed Child will have the tenacity and determination to fight for what he/she wants in life…it makes it tough now when they are little. Just think of them as
    little wild stallions who have to be tamed enough so they don’t hurt themselves…you don’t want to break their spirit…but they have to realize there can only be one
    boss in the barn….at least while they are little. You respect her opinion but you have to make the decision for the good of everyone.

    My advice: Set the boundaries as well as the consequences and Do Not Waver. Just be tough on the things that really matter to you. I didn’t do this ….I was so tired as a single working mother that I was always waffling and bending the rules…it takes a lot of energy to do this and I didn’t have it at the time.

    However, that said…they still grow up and everything turns out fine!

    • True, True. I love what you have to say here Marcy. Especially the part of being so tired, let’s just have ice cream! When we first met you were eating ice cream.

  3. P.S. you said “it’s not always sunshine and rainbows.” That reminds me of a favorite quote:

    “Life isn’t always fair. Sometimes you get a splinter while sliding down a rainbow.”

  4. Your kids picked you for a reason. I always have kept that in mind and it always helped during the harder moments. Always with the kids, whatever age, we communicated, even if it seemed they didn’t listen. They did. Talk about why they should do things they don’t want to do. Why that thing is important, how it will help them, etc. Whenever possible, consult willingness, and give choices. Asking if she wants milk or water to drink, vs “what do you want to drink” leaves chocolate milk out of the equation. And, you will have to be selective with what you hold your position on. Like pink hair, Who cares what color her hair is? It will grow or wash out. I’m sure you do all these things anyway, but these were my stable datums, and served us well through 5 kids. I hope this helps you realize you DO know what you are doing!

    • Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Milk!!!

      Thanks Mary for the really nice ideas here. I think I do know what I am doing too, but it is a challenge sometimes!!

  5. I had one too and I was a worse one. But because I was a worse one, I think I was prepared to deal with the one I had. This is what I did.

    I surrounded my daughter with people I knew and trusted to have good judgment and who agreed with me on most of the important things about child rearing.

    Then, when I needed to impart advice or guidance to her about something, I asked one of the people she respected the most to impart that advice or guidance. I recognized that I was not her opinion leader, but I made sure she had plenty of role models and opinion leaders who would give her good advice.

    It seems to have worked. I even drew on some of these people later in her adult life when she really needed help after a major crisis. We all got her through it.

    A village, indeed.

Life is better with comments