John Again!

December 29, 2008

Joe and I are constantly having to work with John and his obstinateness. Guess we will be for a few more years.

I feel for him. In some ways, I identify with John more than I do Jodie. John likes to be alone sometimes, to not be bothered. Saturday morning he said he just wanted to be left alone. So I left him alone. Some time later Joe asked me if I’d seen John. I hadn’t. Joe found him sitting in a closet by himself. That is bothersome. But what got to me even worse was that Joe yelled at him for it. Yelling isn’t going to help. Joe said he was worried, which of course any parent would be, but yelling and making him feel like he’d done something wrong wasn’t going to help.

I prefer a gentle-yet-assertive approach. When we were at Elaine’s house over the Thanksgiving holiday, John had quite a bit of congestion and was constantly sniffing and snorting. Joe bought some Nyquil for him, which he –well, he didn’t “refuse” to take it, he just got a cupful in his mouth and couldn’t swallow it. Nyquil does have a pretty strong taste, and it’s hard even for me to swallow.

Joe kept threatening to “take him to the doctor and get his shots” when we got home. I asked, why give him shots? People get sick, people get over it. I don’t see the point in going out of our way to the doctor’s office to get shots just for congestion or a cold.

So this past weekend John was congested again. I tried my approach with the Nyquil: I spoon-fed him 4 spoons of it instead of making him down the whole cup. Well, I tried that and the approach my mom took: the “you’re going to take this if I have to shove it down your throat” approach. Well, he finally took it, and even took some the next night ON HIS OWN, without us having to force and threaten. Progress!

Also he’s been eating his vegs – namely broccoli and spinach, where before he’d try every trick in the book to get out of eating them. Again, progress. Oh, I just remembered another thing that happened recently! Saturday morning I tried to get him to take Dayquil tabs. He said he couldn’t swallow them. So you know what? We tried good ol’ parental ingenuity and mixed up a strawberry-mango-yogurt-Dayquil smoothie for him!

Trying to help this kid is like pulling teeth! I told him he’d sit in that chair, even with no bathroom breaks, and not eat another thing UNTIL he had that smoothie down. I swear it took him 3 hours to finish it, but finally did. I said that it wasn’t a punishment, we were trying to help him, as any parent would. But if he refuses to let us help him, well, then there’s nothing we can do. But you know what? His congestion cleared up. Lo and behold.