The twenty minute bite

It's amazing how quickly children begin to understand the ways of the world. No one teaches them disobedience, distrust, or defiance, yet every single child will assert his or her own will sooner or later. It is the very nature of human beings: given free will out of love, but unable to see the perfect love within that gift.

I recently asked Silas' pediatrician when I could put one meal in front of Silas, and if he refused to eat it, then he was done eating. To my surprise, Dr. Burnham said, "Now. Don't be a short-order cook. He is testing you now to see whether he can get what he wants." For that reason, I recently tried my hand at not making an alternate lunch to replace the classic PBJ. Si loves peanut butter and jelly, but for some reason he decided he only wanted his cheese puffs and other snacks last Tuesday. The terrible tug-of-war that followed seem to last forever. After fake tears, real tears (both on Silas' part), a stare down, the silent treatment, and me questioning whether I was a terrible mother, Silas finally took one bite of the soggy sandwich and with my applause spit it right back out. That was good enough for me at this point. He enjoyed a great turkey melt and fruit and yogurt afterwards.

We both learned a little something that day. Silas learned that his cute tears would not always get a response from me, and I learned that sometimes lunch will take over an hour to get through (so let your plans go out the window). What's most important is that we constantly seek wisdom in raising our children. It's not an easy task, but it's an utter joy.