Picking Which Battles to Pick

"You've got to pick your battles."

Probably the most common said parenting tip out there.  Fight the good fight, but only with the issues that really matter.  Otherwise you'll be fighting everything.  All. The. Time.

The advice is good.

The picking can be difficult.  Just which ones are "the battles" to fight?

I am currently in a battle with a 4 year-old.

A battle I very easily could have walked away from.  No biggie.  But I dug in.  She dug in.

And here we are.

Over a fork.

You see.  I asked her what she wanted for dinner.  Spicy chicken nuggets with ranch and chips was her request.  I forced her to pick yogurt or a salad to go with it instead of the chips.  You would have thought that would have been the bigger battle, but alas, she picked salad.  With ranch.

Ok.  Dinner made.  Easy chicken nuggets warmed up in the microwave and salad.  As the nuggets came out of the microwave I cut them into smaller pieces.  Something I do all the time.  I cut them with a fork.  Again, like always.

I put ranch on her salad and stirred it up.  With the fork.

Set her plate on the table same fork.

"Mom.  You got my fork dirty, I need another one."

Nope.  You're not dirtying up another fork.  There is nothing wrong with that one.  Eat your dinner.

Fast forward 15 minutes and the four-year-old has been banished to her room until she is done crying. I refuse to listen to her bawl because of a fork.  And I will NOT get her a "new" one.

You see, I struggle with the "pick your battle" on this one, because all of this could have been avoided by simply getting her a new fork in the beginning.  But I stand by my decision.  The fork was fine.  She doesn't need a new one and she is NOT THE CENTER OF THE DAMN UNIVERSE and needs to learn it.

I will pick the battles that teach our kids not to behave like horrible, bratty, "gotta-have-its."  That is not life. Hard lessons now, to hopefully save their teachers and bosses later.  This is not the first time I have battled with her over simple little issues.  Remember the orange?

Some adults whine and cry and throw fits when they don't get their way.  Ours won't.  And if by some chance they do, I will have this blog post as proof that I did not allow them to act that way when they were 4.

4 year old is currently eating her spicy chicken nuggets and salad.  I win.  And since I'm almost 9 months pregnant and can't have wine, I foresee a very large piece of pie in my future.