Weaning my stubborn daughter

I never imagined it would happen this way. Background: She is 22 months old. VERY attached to the boob. She also has a temper and attitude that baffles even my Samoan mother-in-law. Any of you who know Polynesian grandmothers know how significant this is 😅 This little girl (“little”…she’s in 3t/4t clothing and in the 99th percentile) is more decisive and sure of herself than I have been most of my life. Also, bc ours is a bilingual home, our kids have always been “delayed” with language skills, so she uses very few, if any, words still. BUT she does know “please”! And uses it sometimes.

Teaching her to be consistent with “please” has been really hit-and-miss. It just happened yesterday morning that, when she was yanking at my shirt for “susu” (Samoan word for milk/breast/nurse…remember that attitude I mentioned? Teaching her to not yank has been hard), it just tumbled out of my mouth “say ‘please.’” She vigorously shook her head and grunted her version of “no.” Well, now I did it: I set the expectation and I had to keep to it. I did not expect, however, that she would refuse to say please to nurse the entire rest of the day. She approached me and said her please asking for other things twice in the day, but wouldn’t to nurse. She fussed to fall asleep for her nap. She fussed to fall asleep at bedtime. But not much. She knew what was expected of her, and just laid there.

Today, she continued to refuse. Napped and fell asleep for bedtime with little fuss. I wasn’t ready for this, lol. Who is this kid?! 😅 My mom was a single mom of three until I was 11, through a lot of circumstances that forced her to be tough as nails. My mil raised EIGHT Samoan babies, and my husband was the biggest fiapoko (Samoan word for “cheeky/ornery/bratty”) out of all of them! Lol. We both come from impoverished small-farm families with legacies of strength and endurance, and perseverance through hardships. And we are all AMAZED at this little girl’s attitude and stubbornness. We love it. We know it will take her far, so long as she learns to channel her energy properly and productively. But we are frequently stunned by this little queen.