Learning how to gauge your tailored responses to that bossy toddler that was born of your loins can be a bit tricky. At least this is what I am experiencing. At this age they know too much for their own good. I have defaulted to a more stern iteration of myself out of a sense of survival. Really, truthfully, out of a sense of survival--no sugar coating applied here. If I weren't the way I am I think that I would get run over and That is actually a really scary thought. Like it or not, these little beings do try and take over the household. Without taking a single class on middle-management mechanics, they have it all down pat simply by watching and listening. They know where all the weaknesses lie and with whom and they systematically exploit each one. Not just once, but over and over again: assaulting the armor with chinks to see if it'll give. It's an intersting exercise in parental resiliency. Parents are forced to become sterner caricatures of themselves in a way. They don't want to be, but eventually they get forced into it like the water that swirls the basin to ultimately get pulled down the drainnpipe. Don't get me wrong. These children are precious beings that are more priceless than anything we can envision, but in their own innocence (or not, as sometimes is the case) they purify you and force you into revelations about life and yourself that you never could have seen without them. It's these things that inspire me. It's the tough stuff--or so is my opinion--in the parenting process that gives you the true jewels and insights into the mechanics of life and yourself that ultimately, if you let them, make you rich beyond measure. I'm certainly in that 'learning stage' of 'how to let them....'. Maybe that's a continual process, like so many things in life, of levels of comprehension and depth. I think it may well be. It's a great joy to be a parent, and very often way more comedy than you can even stand. Somehow we manage. Many times I'm just not in the mood for it to be that funny, and that, in and of itself is kind of funny too. I relax, and then catch up to myself, and have a good chuckle. There are moments though where you just wish that your kid would just willingly comply......just because, rather than contest every little thing. Wow, that would be something, huh?