Back in the Booster

I came home from work to learn that my son has outgrown the need to listen to his parents.  Yes, it's true.  He demonstrated this several times by doing exactly what his mother asked him not to do only one second before, all while keeping eye contact with her.  Well, it came to a head at dinner time, when he wiggled so much in his chair--another thing we ask him not to do--that the chair fell over.  That was it.  We'd threatened him many times with going back in the booster seat if he couldn't sit still.  Tonight, we finally followed through on it.  He was vehemently opposed to it, resulting in some time to think about it in his room.  He had been given the choice to either do as we say or go to his room.  He said, "That is not a choice!"  We said, "That is the choice you earned."  Eventually, he submitted, with the understanding that doing so would earn him his big boy chair back tomorrow.  Tonight felt like a children's version of "Taming of the Shrew."

This may be one of the many challenges of having a four-year old.  Recognizing he is not the only one at fault, we both tucked him in tonight--without books, because he lost that privilege too--and we apologized to him and he apologized to us.  Then we promised each other that we would try harder to be patient and not loose our temper tomorrow, and he promised he would try harder to listen and obey (with some prompting, of course).  He is a good boy.  We're not worried.  But today was definitely a tough one with him.