It doesn't matter how early I start her, Tater comes late to breakfast, as in, arrives when breakfast is being cleared away. I think it has something to do with with early food deprivation, so I haven't the heart to consistently do the logical thing ("too bad so sad, you missed breakfast"). We have done that, but it had no impact and I couldn't shake the feeling that that was her point, to recreate the early experiences of hunger and neglect. If she can recreate that experience, she has a focus for the anger that she carries around.
So today I awoke her at 9 and told her breakfast was at 9:30. She needs to shower, get dressed, and straighten up her room in that half hour. At 9:30 I went and got her out of the shower (ignoring the pleas for rinsing the conditioner) and handed her her robe and took her to the table.
After breakfast we will do our normal routines up until it is time to leave for music class. She will have to scamper through those to get time to go get dried off and dressed.
So now she is angry about that. What a horrible way for all of us to start our day. What would you do?
She's almost 11 now, btw.
