> "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" does NOT work with parents. The > squeaky wheel is far more likely to get a couple of sharp, short > whacks in the you-know-where. I got them, and admistered them in my > turn.
It depends on the parent, but I think more often than not, it is possible to make enough of a fuss (if you do it for a while) that you will get what you want, just to shut you up. A colleague told me once about her toddler refusing to eat what she was given for lunch, and refusing to budge. I think the majority of parents are likely to have given her something else to eat (not necessarily something unhealthy or junk food - just not what was put in front of her). My colleague on the other hand simply said that she had to eat her lunch and she wasn't going anywhere till she did. Mother and child then sat in the same room till *dinner-time* when the child finally ate her lunch. As for the rest of the thread, I think the rose-tinted spectacles are out in force. I think the quality of parenting is the key factor in any child's life, and I don't think that has changed all that much in the last 30 years... Badri
