She is her father's daughter...

There's a story about Marcus that lives on and on. I wasn't even in the picture when this happened but I've heard the story several times over the course of our relationship. When Marcus was either an 8th or 9th grader his parents asked him to rake the leaves.

He didn't want to and so he simply refused to do so. His parents then offered the following consequence; "If you don't rake the leaves you can't go to the carnival tonight" (It was a small town, when the carnival was in town it was something to do.) Marcus decided that was fair and decided to forgo the carnival and hanging out with friends, and continued to refuse to rake the leaves. He didn't want to do it, wasn't going to do it, and he decided to just take the consequence. Ultimately, Marcus didn't rake the leaves that day.

I think the reason the story lives on is because generally Marcus is incredibly easy going. He will pretty much do anything, but there are occasions when he absolutely refuses to budge from his position.

Today, Emerson had the same moment. I was quilting and asked her several times not to touch the straight pins. She did anyways and knocked them all over the floor. I asked her to pick them up. She  picked up one and then stopped, and finally she just refused to pick up anymore.

So I told her, "Emerson you need to pick up the pins or you're going to sit in the corner." This works wonders with Eli. If we even mention the corner he immediately does whatever we're requesting. Emerson on the other hand walked over to the corner of the room sat down and said, "Mama, I corner."

Like, her dad, she decided she would just deal with the consequences rather then do something she didn't want to do. In the end she won. She sat in the corner and I picked up the pins.

I'm going to need to re-think my strategy when dealing with Emerson.