Random Conversation - An Arguement

Last night was on of those nights where, coupled by tiredness and yet still having a whole lot of things to settle before CNY, Janine's dinner entics just did not amuse me at all.

For a while now, this girl has been dawdling over her meals, taking as long as one and a half hours to eat...assisted. Some meal times were good - she would wipe up everything in half an hour without leaving her seat. Other times were bad - she would keep her PORRIDGE in her mouth and not chew/swallow, walk all over the place, etc. Those times were very trying times for anyone who feeds her. No amount of coaxing or "bribes" would goad her to swallow her food and finish her dinner within the hour.

Last night was one of those nights.

She started her dinner earlier than her father or myself and even when we were done, she was not even half way through. Even after I spent the next hour ransacking the whole house looking for something, the amount of porridge left in her bowl hardly moved.

I was peeved. So I set a timer out. She (obviously) didn't finished her last few mouthfuls when the timer went off. So I "confiscated" her porridge and admonished her for being not only a time but a food waster as well, how she was being a naughty and that she was making all of us angry. I even went as far as to threaten her that if she doesn't want to eat, I can very well let her starve and become a skeleton and die. Yes. I was ranting at my little girl. Ranting and raving. Going on and on and on. Piling frustration after frustration on her little conscience.

And then, midway through my ranting and raving, the little girl, feeling very unjustified, walked into the bedroom where I was, and declared very pointedly:

"I am a GOOD girl! I am not naughty! You! You make me so grouchy!"

And then she marched off to the living room, plonked herself on the couch with a book (to sulk?), all the while muttering the same phrase a few times to whoever was within ear shot.

My! My! Looks like mother and daughter just had our first arguement!