strong-willed... or just plain ol' stubborn?

When I was a toddler, I was a little dynamo.

I learned to talk when I was very young (speaking in full sentences well before my second birthday), and from the stories my mom and her sisters tell, I talked and talked and talked... and talked back, too. I had a mind of my own, and keeping me in line proved to be very challenging for my mom and dad.

I stayed that way well into my teenage or young adult years, I'm sure...

Now that I'm a parent myself, I can see similar character traits in my kids. As frustrating as it is to deal with willful children, I keep hoping that their self-assuredness and free-spirits will serve them well.

Ask anyone who's seen me in action in a meeting where people are trying to push me around... I may not look mean on the outside, but I'm full of meanness on the inside.

But only when I need to be.

Hee!

Comments

[Rhonda]

I see so much of me in Aaron so I push him harder. My shyness/fear of the unknown kept me from doing so much as a teen, I push Aaron so he doesn't have the same regrets I do now that I'm old ;)

[Barb]

Good for you, Rhonda! It's tough to push your kids hard, but I do the same thing with my kids... push and hope for the best.

I pushed myself out of my comfort zone when I was a teenager... I joined the debating club, despite my self-assessed shyness, and I'm so happy I did. Overcoming my fear of public speaking was so much easier at age 13 than it would have been as an adult!