We spent countless months teaching her to go potty and now she won't stay out of the bathroom and refuses any help I offer. I truly believe this girl is on a mission to be the only thirty year old in a five year old body ever recorded.
Okay, so she doesn't want my help and somewhere deep inside, past my fragile mommy ego, I think I'm proud of that. But, she's as equally offended at my offers to help as she is my effort to discipline. Never in my life have I seen a five year old look so deeply appalled as when I tell her she just earned herself some time in the corner.
The problem isn't that she doesn't understand between right and wrong. She knows that being quiet while mommy is on the phone is the right thing to do. She also knows that kicking her sister in the head while we're at the grocery store is very wrong. The hang up comes when I try to punish her. She thinks punishment is universally equal and if she has to stand in the corner for misbehaving, then everyone should stand in the corner when they are bad. When I send her sister to her room instead, she becomes indignant about how mommy handles certain situations.
Her source of self-esteem is also the same reason I have a headache. By her standards and reasoning, if she can do something, then she's going to. That's what is so frustrating because we've already established that she knows the difference between right and wrong, she has just decided minding mommy is beneath her royal station.
