Stubborn, Stubborn

Both my boys seemed to have inherited stubbornness, and I'll be honest it was probably from me. However, both enhance their stubbornness in very different ways. Michael is a routine boy and and always expects things to happen the way they are suppose to. He has a strong sense of justice and likes to know what is right or normal. You cannot get him to change a schedule once it is set without a lot of discussion about why the change is right for this situation. Jon on the other hand is a very flow with the moment type of guy. His stubbornness is more related to wanting to do what he wants when he wants to. He could care less what the pattern or instructions are, he goes with what he feels like in the moment. Let me give you an example from this morning:

The boys are suppose to sleep until at least 7:00am, but Jon woke up at 6:30 and started screaming. I tried unsuccessfully to put him back down and finally gave in and got him up because poor Michael was clutching his clock whining that it wasn't 7 and he couldn't sleep with Jon throwing a fit. So I take Jon downstairs and he immediately goes to the kitchen pointing at the fridge and grunting - indicating he wanted some juice. Ten minutes later after half a cup of juice and a small breakfast he is standing at the foot of the stairs pointing up and screaming at me. I try to get him to go back and finish breakfast or to find some toys but there is no swaying him. So I follow him up and he heads right to his bedroom and wants back in bed. Who'd ever figure!

Well, I decide that this would be a great opportunity for me to take a shower in peace since that doesn't happen often. However, a couple minutes in I hear crying. I try to ignore it thinking Jon just wants up again, but when I turn the shower off I realize it is Michael crying. Turns out his clock had fallen to the floor and the battery had fallen out, so he didn't know what time it was. Could he get up? Was it breakfast time or time to get dressed? His world was falling apart!

So there you have it - my boys. I'll just call them Stubborn 1 and Stubborn 2.