At home, "____ before I count to three or I'm taking it away" usually works pretty well, since hiding toys in the closet isn't a huge burden on me.

Out and about, there's less stuff to take away and "Stop ___ or we're going home" isn't always a threat I can follow through on. We usually wind up having a time-out on a bench or something.

I think the idea was that, next time, you would eat the food so you didn't have to wear it. It never worked with my mom. Though she ended up with very healthy, shiny hair.

My memory of my childhood is that my parents always won. They were scary-assed mofos. My goal was just to hide my misdeeds, or somehow misrepresent my mother to my father (he did fall for recent bruises and puppydog eyes).

But the only way to not finish dinner was to feed it to the dogs. To not finish lunch involved hiding it under my bed.

Though I'm sure if you asked them it didn't work out quite that often in their favour.

msbelle wins the day at both stubborn and parenting.

Come to think of it, there've been plenty of days that the only thing that got me to go to work was the thought of our excellent cafeteria. Where people would cook me things.

My memory of my childhood is that my parents always won. They were scary-assed mofos.

My childhood too. My dad was especially scary. Perhaps it was his German heritage, but we learned at a very young age never to challenge our dad.

one of the best things I was told on my adoptive parents' listserve was not to make food one of the control issues. mac never has to eat and he always has some things available to him. Now sometimes he will get the same thing for multiple meals if he refuses to eat it, but I don;t yell about it.

Office Max made me laugh. At least Staples just gives you a tiny, cardboard card--which is very worth it, by the way. I always get a nice, small check from our recycled toner cartridges and the discount coupons I get are not puny--usually 20% or more.

msbelle, 1. Stubborn!mac, nil.

Jesse, what did your friend's parents do, when their sixth grader refused to go to school?

I think she eventually got some actual mental health treatment, and maybe a different school? I don't really remember, but there were definitely large issues that were ultimately addressed. But not after weeks of her not going to school.

and now mac has gotten so bored that he is actually doing HOMEWORK! that would have been assigned today. Pre-emptive weekend homework! it's a child development miracle.

So did you walk around the living room pumping your fists? I would have.

I don't think I was hard to discipline as a rule, but I may be misremembering things. When it came to food, my mom's strategy for getting us to eat was to make food that tasted good. It usually worked. The only ish was every so often she insisted on making liver and onions and telling us to eat it, and we'd take a couple of bites and spit it out on the plate in disgust. All 4 of us. But she and dad ate it. Finally she once 'fessed up that she didn't like it she just thought it was good for you, and we kids pointed out it ain't helping if we aren't eating it, and she MIRACULOUSLY agreed and never made it again. The end.

My dad was especially scary.

My dad never said anything to the other kids, and maybe that's why he terrified them so. But my mother was the hands-on (often literally) hardass. We had an university-age cousin with severe discipline problems go stay with her, and she actually behaved for two weeks, which was unheard of. Then cousin lapsed back into stealing and drinking and lying and got booted out of the house, because unlike cousin's parents, my mother is large with the immediate consequences.