Convincing

One of the (many) thing about kids is that they constantly need to be convinced. I believe that a good 98% of all the fairy tales, myths and legends are a direct result of parents trying to convince their kids to eat their veggies and not hit one another. 

Convincing is different than reminding. Reminding is, "Please turn off the light." She's knows and understands this, just forgets. Convincing is, "You need to eat because otherwise you'll starve. And we'll go to jail."

This one, for example, needs to be convinced every evening that she can get something from her room by herself. And that she needs to brush her teeth (still trying to convince her while she's standing at the sink).  And that she needs to get dressed after bath time instead of dancing around like a jay bird and freezing. 

The photo above is from dinnertime, which is usually the beginning of the our nightly trials. Lately, she's been running around like crazy at dinner, resulting in spilled drinks and plates full of food on the floor.  So we tried to convince her that big girls sit at the table and eat dinner in their seats. This particular solution started as a threat- basically, "We'll strap you down."  But as you can see, the threat was unconvincing.