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It’s a wonderful fact that children will occasionally disobey their parents for the express purpose of testing just how much they can get away with. This is a game I call “Challenge the Chief,” and it can be played with surprising skill—even by very young kids.
If you have children at home, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. You have clearly and emphatically told your little girl, “Don’t touch the lamp,” only to turn around a moment later to see her flashing you an impish grin as her hand grasps the forbidden object. Or perhaps you’ve instructed your son to clean up his messy room or eat his vegetables, and he responds by setting his jaw, folding his arms and essentially saying, “Make me!”
Virtually every parent, the world over, has been issued an ultimatum of this nature at one time or another! But when moms and dads ignore this kind of challenge, something changes in the parent-child relationship. For a particularly strong-willed boy or girl, that early test of parental leadership can grow into a full-blown case of rebellion during the tumultuous days of adolescence.