In this corner, weighing in at 130 lbs, we have our reigning champion, mama Maida!

Let’s get ready to rumble…

Zander and I had el battle royale yesterday – a test of wills. And I lost. Well, I lost it, anyway. He just kept pushing me and testing me and I let him get to me. I yelled at him, tried to taunt him back and then left him in time out in the car.

He had truly gotten on my last nerve. He was rude, rude, rude. We just got madder and madder at each other, feeding off each other’s anger. It was bad. Not my proudest parenting.

So this morning, he awoke with attitude, and I decided that I would nip it in the bud. “Zander, ” I explained, “let’s have a good day today. If you could be nice to me, I can be nice to you. Let’s try not to fight today, okay? If you are not rude to me and don’t have big tantrums, that would be great. It would really make me happy if you could do things when I ask you to them without saying ‘No, I don’t want to.’ or ‘I *will*’ rudely.”

“Okay, mom.”

Then he found a Land Before Time movie he wanted to watch. I said that if we could get through the day without fighting, he could watch the whole movie tonight.

It actually worked. When I requested things from him – like going to the potty or eating his meal – he would at first balk as he usually would. I would gently remind him, “Zander, I am asking you nicely to do this. I don’t want to have to fight about it.” And then he would be agreeable. After Doug got home, we exchanged glances several times at how agreeable Zander was because he really wanted to watch that movie.

Before we put the movie on, after bath and PJs, I hugged Zander, “We had a good day today, didn’t we?” He agreed. “No yelling, no fighting…”

“No frustrating…” he continued.

“It really makes me happy when we don’t fight, Zander. I really like it. Thank you so much for being so nice to me today. I really appreciate it.”

We hugged some more. He watched his movie, then went to bed. No stalling or anything.

Of course, it could be a fluke. But I’ll take it. It was a really great day for us after last night’s war.