The Stand Off

This was it.

This was the moment I always knew would come.

The moment where I was finally going to see what I was made of.

As I stood 4 feet from my three year old daughter and held her beloved “squishy” dinosaur over the trash can, I reminded myself it was her that had pushed me to this point.

I am not an awful mother…..she had fair warning.

Night after night, I warned her that if she continued to argue with me and refuse to go to bed, one day it would come to this.

My hands began to sweat as we stared each other down, each completely frozen.

Neither of us said a word.

My fingers were twitching and I’m positive I heard the old wild west whistle from The Good the Bad and the Ugly –“wee-ooo-wee-ooo-woo-woo” – fill the air.

As we stared each other down, I was sure that at any moment a tumble weed was going to bounce by in between us.

My heart began to race and suddenly I found myself questioning every decision I ever made as a mother that brought me to this point.

I began to squeeze the squishy dinosaur over and over as if it were a stress ball.

I held her stare.

She held mine.

She did not come any nearer, nor did she retreat.

What am I expecting her to do? If she would only go back to her room and lie down, I wouldn’t need to sacrifice the dinosaur.

It seemed she was willing to take this further to see if said dinosaur would in fact, meet his fate amongst tonight’s dinner.

She’s a monster.

I continued staring at her and realized she reminded me of the military men who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She was never going to move. Come Hell or high water, her feet were planted.

And then, just then…….she did the unthinkable.

She blew me a kiss.

Ruthless.

In that moment, before I even realized what was happening, I lowered my hand and said the words of defeat. “If I give squishy dinosaur back to you, will you go to bed nicely?”

A smile like that of the Joker creeped across her sickenly adorable face and she turned and ran to her room.

She crawled into her bed as I laid the dinosaur against her cheek and covered her with the blankie that had previously been held hostage underneath my arm.

“Good night mommy.”

“Good night dear, I love you.”

Squishy dinosaur lives to see another day.