When do the toddler battles stop?

[SundayCrepes]

My son is 33 months. It's just easier to not make issues out of a lot of stuff. For example, when we go to Trader Joe's he always puts a 29 cent bottle of water in his cart. For 29 cents I just let him do it. But now the bottles are stacking up undrunk. There's lots of little stuff where I "choose my battle." But I'm getting tired of many of these little events. The big stuff I do stand firm and sometimes he's over-emotional and sometimes he's not.

When does it get easier to tell them to put back the 29 cent water?

[ktmama]

I noticed that at right around three, it got easier to set some more firm limits like this. I know part of it was me getting tired of indulging all of these things and part of it was her maturity to be able to not have a meltdown over every little thing.

I think, in this example, I would start before we left the house. "We are going to TJ, but we're not going to get any water today. But, I do need your help with X, Y, Z. Will you help me in the store?"