If you dive into it, you’ll discover that all American parents, even well-adjusted ones, spend a staggering amount of time each day trying to get their toddlers and preschoolers to do the right thing—as often as twenty-four times an hour, according to some studies—and that toddlers and preschoolers, even well-adjusted ones, spend a staggering amount of time resisting these efforts.
Sounds about right. I find distraction to be a great tool to use. Distract and then the steadfast resistance usually disappears when you come back to the issue at hand (usually the refusal to do something or to do something right was completely arbitrary and more about control through “no” than anything). Still, maddening.
