Some examples:
Me: "It's lunchtime!"
Ds: (looking horrified) "No! Not for me!"
Me: "OK don't eat it then." (calm, starting to take it away)
DS: "No! Don't take it away! (crying) I WANT lunch!" (eats)
- we do this every mealtime, every day without fail. This might not seem like a problem, since he ends up eating lunch, but he's been doing it for a good 6 months now and it's been slowly eroding my will to live.
He also often says things like "I like hitting people" (he isn't a hitter, never has been, but talks about it a lot), and "I like being sad". Today when I commented on the fact that it was sunny he said "No, I think it's raining." This kind of thing is pretty much his usual response to any statements I make.
There must be times when he agrees to something I say, but I can't think of any lately... He has a huge sense of humour, makes us laugh a lot and likes to pull our legs so I wonder if it's linked to that, but it is SO wearying when it's all the time.
Why is he doing it STILL, when he presumably isn't getting the reaction he's hoping for? Is there a better way of dealing with it than constantly calling his bluff?
(He also of course has tantrums when we have to do anything he really doesn't feel like doing, but I've always assumed that was what toddlers do anyway).
Any way of making this phase (please say it is just a phase) shorter? Am expecting ds2 in a month, feeling huge and tired and fully expecting my reserves of patience to disappear completely.