Children love to see how much they can get away with and how far you will let them get. (Well so will adults for that matter) If you tell them no, they love to try to whine, cry, beg and hound you into changing your mind. For example, to save money this week (my husband who is in construction hasn't worked much) we bought a big old bag of generic "toasted o's" for breakfast. Yesterday, the oldest son asked where the sugar was, and I didn't realize it was for the cereal told him where it was. (I am opposed to using refined sugar if I can avoid it) So, today one of the other boys, knowing that the oldest boy got sugar in his cereal, decided it was his mission to try to get me to let him have sugar in his cereal. Let me just tell you, I have been a parent for almost 10 years not, and those kind of games don't work with me (not like when I was much younger and unwise to these things)

So, he gets the cereal out of the cuppord and proceeds to come over to me to tell me how disgusting the cereal is, how he's not going to eat it, and it's just disgusting. I simply tell him that's whats for breakfast and if he doesn't want it, then I don't know what to tell him. He might just have to go hungry. Of course, that did not deter him easily. He felt the need to continue to tell me how disgusting it was for another minute and then huffed off. That is until a few minutes later he comes back to ask for oatmeal. I also have a policy on this. We have some flavored microwave oatmeal that is not very filling and kind of a treat, so the kids cannot have oatmeal untless they have eaten some cereal and are still hungry. So I tell him, no. Well one of the other kids is in the kitchen preparing some oatmeal and this of course drives him crazy. So he finally decides to get the 'disgusting' cereal.

After he sits down at the table and tells me again it's disgusting, I tell him if I hear another complaint he will go directly to a time out. Time out's work pretty well here. So the next thing I hear him say is that the cereal is actually pretty good, and that he's glad he got alot. I just have to laugh. I don't think as many parents realize that children really do need and want rules to live by. Yes, they will rebel and complain, such is life. Without rules and someone to guide them, what would become of a young person. I think you can just look around society today to see the answer to that. I am very proud to know that when I take my children out to eat, I always get complimented on how well behaved they are. I just wish that other parents had some of these values for their familes as well.