She has always been this way, but the last few months the behavior has gotten so much more intense. I'm planning on HSing in the fall, and one of the main reasons is because I have these horrible visions of me standing over her at 7:30 every morning screaming at her to just finally put on her shoes because THE BUS IS COMING!!! 
: 
(But seriously, I don't think I could handle the mornings.)
She constantly has to "just finish something" when I call her or ask her to do something. For example, yesterday we were at the grocery store, and I was standing at the car door waiting for her to get out. And standing. And standing. Finally I said, "Bell, come on, we have to get this done, let's go." She insisted that she just had to finish stuffing this plastic bag "just so" under the arm of the car seat, and nothing I say will ever convince her to move any faster!
We were trying to get ready to go to the dentist yesterday, and I got her out of the bath and told her to go and get dressed (I had laid out her clothes), and then hurry into the kitchen to eat her lunch before we go. She had said she was starving, so I figured it shouldn't take long. I go back in a few minutes later and she's fully dressed, sitting in a chair reading a library book. This is how all our days go. The more I try to impress upon her that we need to move things along, the more she pushes back, and the slower she goes, and the crazier I get and the harder I push, and so on.
I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself well, but this is the way things have always been. We have problems getting anywhere on time, and I've been told to leave extra time for getting ready. But her foot-dragging expands to fill the time, so we never actually leave the house until my eyes are bugging out of my head and someone's crying from being forced to do something horrid like put on shoes or get into the car without rearranging the stuffed animals ONE LAST TIME. I mean, we could be places on time, really, but that just means the yelling would have to start 20 minutes earlier
The behavior has intensified lately, and I'm losing my mind. I was so enraged over her antics while getting ready for the dentist yesterday that I found myself practically shoving her down the hallway toward the kitchen and actually had to go lay in my bed for a few minutes while my mom persuaded her to eat her lunch and brushed her hair. (Yes, PMS was involved too
, but this has been going on for awhile now.)
I would love some ideas/feedback from those of you who BTDT. FWIW, I've slowed down our lives quite a bit lately. She has day camp 3 days a week, but the bus picks her up here, so that seems to be more of an incentive for her to get a move on. When it's me doing the shuttling, she's more inclined to dawdle along the way. We hardly do any playdates anymore, don't have ballet anymore, have had fewer family obligations etc. And we'll be HSing in the fall, but I can foresee this whole dynamic creating problems there too: She'll happily do things for others (my mom, teachers, camp counselors) that she would give me a very hard time about.
Do I really need to stand over her for every step of every process? WWYD?
ETA that I don't want to give the impression that this is just about going places, either. It's everything. I'll tell her that dinner is ready, and she'll tell me she has to go to the bathroom. Ten minutes later I'll go look for her and she's still hanging out on the toilet, staring into space and singing. When I ask her to please finish and come to the table, she gets annoyed and tells me that she's SINGING! Or I'll tell her that she has 5 minutes to pick a book for bedtime (because she inevitably shoots down anything I pick out), and I'll find her in the bathroom, playing with a Barbie. Argh!
: (But seriously, I don't think I could handle the mornings.)She constantly has to "just finish something" when I call her or ask her to do something. For example, yesterday we were at the grocery store, and I was standing at the car door waiting for her to get out. And standing. And standing. Finally I said, "Bell, come on, we have to get this done, let's go." She insisted that she just had to finish stuffing this plastic bag "just so" under the arm of the car seat, and nothing I say will ever convince her to move any faster!
We were trying to get ready to go to the dentist yesterday, and I got her out of the bath and told her to go and get dressed (I had laid out her clothes), and then hurry into the kitchen to eat her lunch before we go. She had said she was starving, so I figured it shouldn't take long. I go back in a few minutes later and she's fully dressed, sitting in a chair reading a library book. This is how all our days go. The more I try to impress upon her that we need to move things along, the more she pushes back, and the slower she goes, and the crazier I get and the harder I push, and so on.
I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself well, but this is the way things have always been. We have problems getting anywhere on time, and I've been told to leave extra time for getting ready. But her foot-dragging expands to fill the time, so we never actually leave the house until my eyes are bugging out of my head and someone's crying from being forced to do something horrid like put on shoes or get into the car without rearranging the stuffed animals ONE LAST TIME. I mean, we could be places on time, really, but that just means the yelling would have to start 20 minutes earlier
The behavior has intensified lately, and I'm losing my mind. I was so enraged over her antics while getting ready for the dentist yesterday that I found myself practically shoving her down the hallway toward the kitchen and actually had to go lay in my bed for a few minutes while my mom persuaded her to eat her lunch and brushed her hair. (Yes, PMS was involved too
, but this has been going on for awhile now.)I would love some ideas/feedback from those of you who BTDT. FWIW, I've slowed down our lives quite a bit lately. She has day camp 3 days a week, but the bus picks her up here, so that seems to be more of an incentive for her to get a move on. When it's me doing the shuttling, she's more inclined to dawdle along the way. We hardly do any playdates anymore, don't have ballet anymore, have had fewer family obligations etc. And we'll be HSing in the fall, but I can foresee this whole dynamic creating problems there too
: She'll happily do things for others (my mom, teachers, camp counselors) that she would give me a very hard time about.Do I really need to stand over her for every step of every process? WWYD?
ETA that I don't want to give the impression that this is just about going places, either. It's everything. I'll tell her that dinner is ready, and she'll tell me she has to go to the bathroom. Ten minutes later I'll go look for her and she's still hanging out on the toilet, staring into space and singing. When I ask her to please finish and come to the table, she gets annoyed and tells me that she's SINGING! Or I'll tell her that she has 5 minutes to pick a book for bedtime (because she inevitably shoots down anything I pick out), and I'll find her in the bathroom, playing with a Barbie. Argh!
: for the next several years. 
