Lessons in Determination

Typically my Newly turned four year old is 100% mule (as in stubborn).  I distinctly remember my first attempt to wait out her stubbornness when she was just over two.  At that time we had merely five rules in our house:

1. No hitting
2. No kicking
3. No biting
4. No throwing
5. No pushing

These rules were reciting many times throughout each and every day; and on many occasions my then two and a bit year old recited them as well.  On this particular day  after I took something away from her she decided to rage against the man and gave me good hoof in the arm.  I promptly took action and told her "No, that hurts mommy".  Then I followed by asking her to say sorry and tell me what the rules were.  This was followed by a 45 minute wait until she finally gave in.  Now I would think that for a two and a bit year old that must be equivalent to like a week for an adult.

Since this time I can recall countless struggles due to how stubborn she can be; however this past week this normally troublesome trait shone through in a most positive light.

Last week we took her and her sister to a kind of indoor amusement park type of place.  Inside they had something referred to as the rope challenge.  Basically this was a series of ropes and beams suspended approximately one and a half stories above the ground.  Individuals are harnessed and clipped to tracks on the ceiling and then complete the series of obstacles.  My daughter decided she would like to give this a try.

So off the two of us went to line up and wait our turn.  The guy running the coarse buckled us in and showed me how to hold on to the clip on the back of her harness in order to keep her more stable.    It was at this point that I started to have second thoughts.  We climbed up to the first pedestal and looked at the coarse in front of us.  Now I was truly thinking I don't want to do this.

I bent down and said "you know we don't have to do this.  We can just climb down and go back to the rock wall."  She looked up at me and replied "no, I want to".  We stood on top of this pedestal for about 10-15 minutes trying to determine our route.  During this time some passed us, while others, some four times my little ones age backed out.  I bent down at least three more times trying to convince her to back out without sounding scared myself.  But she had decided in her head that she was going to do it.

Finally we took our first steps onto the beam.  Slowly but surely we made our way through a loop of four obstacles.  Then she relented and agreed to my suggestion that we could be done.  Thank goodness for that; I had been so stressed during this entire ordeal my calves burned and my arms ached.  I don't believe that I could have physically done anymore.

Never have I seen her so determined to complete any challenge and I could not have been more proud.  I felt very fortunate to have witnessed the power that stubbornness mixed with a goal can accomplish.