A Time to Remember (Battle of Wills)

This is Nana’s favorite memory.  When she and I were engaged in our own battles of wills as I was growing up she always told me she hoped one day my children would be just like me…  

While my son and I were eating dinner at my parent’s house one night we experienced our first mother-son battle of wills. Everyone was seated at the table, with him in his highchair next to me.  Apparently finished with actually eating his dinner, he decided to throw pieces of the leftovers from his highchair tray onto the floor.  While I was not pleased with this particular behavior, he quickly gained an audience that encouraged him to continue.  Both our inside dog and my parent’s inside dog made their way to the kitchen where they were snatching the food up as fast as he could throw it down.  He found feeding them from his highchair tray to be extremely entertaining.  After telling him “no” several times without any luck I eventually cleared the remaining food from his highchair tray.  Satisfied I had proved that I was in fact the one “in charge” I sat back down to finish my own dinner.  Rather smugly, I’m sure, I glanced over at him, only to see my angelic, innocent, blond haired, blue eyed little boy very purposefully look me directly in the eye and then proceed to pick up imaginary food from his highchair tray and sling it onto the floor.  I was only slightly amused and much more shocked that one so young could so willingly be so defiant.  More than ever I was determined he would not win this little battle. I again told him “no” and leaned over and picked up the imaginary food from the floor and pretended to place it back on his tray.  With “the look” he would later become somewhat famous for (a look that made it obvious that the wheels were turning as he contemplated his next move, while at the same time seriously questioned your intelligence), he waited only a moment, then again looked me directly in the eye and pretended to pick up imaginary food from his tray and sling it onto the floor.  Once more I told him “no,” leaned over, picked up the imaginary food from the floor, and placed it back on his tray.  I honestly can’t say how many times this occurred or how long it might have gone on without some advice from Papa, who was much more amused than Mama.  Nana was too busy trying to stifle her laughter and avoid choking on her dinner to speak, much less offer advice.  The next time my sweet little boy boldly looked me in the eye and then pretended to pick up imaginary food from his tray and sling it onto the floor, I looked at the floor where the pretend food should have been and exclaimed “Oh no.  It’s all gone; the puppies ate it!”  The look of confusion was priceless as he leaned over to see for himself that the imaginary food was in fact “gone.”  I again was on the receiving end of “the look” that also clearly declared he would be better prepared next time.  I can’t say for sure that I won this first battle.  I may have only given him ammunition for the future.   Either way, I knew then that I had my work cut out for me and that raising my son was going to require patience and serious creativity!