Sweet Boy

Henry is a kind, caring, thoughtful, helpful little boy.  He has a fun personality that I love.  With that said, I feel like there is a constant power struggle between us.  Maybe between him and the whole rest of the world.  I'm not quite sure.  He is a SMART little boy that has amazing logic and negotiation skills. It is exhausting.  My goal is to somehow teach him that I am his mother, his father is his father, and WE are in charge.  Our house is NOT a democracy.  At the same time, I would like for us to make it through his childhood without squelching his personality.  

A few times before supper, Henry politely protested the pending Baked Sausage Ziti.  He kept digging through the fridge and making suggestions as to what else would be so much better than pasta.  He was being very nice about it and not whiny, so I patiently told him that "We could have that another night." or "That sounds like an interesting supper.", etc.  I did not agree to make anything that he wanted more than pasta.

We have a ... rule? ... understanding? ... that he does not have to eat all of his supper if he does not want to.  I just do not make him anything else.  He eats what he is given or he gets a slice of bread and that's it.  Tonight he decided that all he wanted was a slice of cheese.  I told him that he could have a slice of cheese if he ate four noodles. 

I guess the noodles were tastier than he expected because he ate more than four bites.  He also ate half of his garlic toast before he decided he was done.  He then nicely asked if he could have his slice of cheese, so I got it for him.  He thanked me for it and ran off to play.  A couple minutes later he stopped what he was doing, came back into the kitchen, gave me a hug, and said "Thank you for supper, Mama!".  I am glad that we made it through our meal preference differences without having to battle it out.  I am also glad he appreciated supper, even if he didn't agree with my choice.  He's a sweet kid.