Parenting is Hard

Parenting was especially hard today. I'm sick with a terrible head cold that has knocked me off my feet, so that has probably made things harder than usual, but still.
Samuel hates to do homework and practice piano. Making him do these things is no fun. We won't make him do piano again next year, but we feel like he needs to finish the semester. We feel like we need to teach him to finish the things he starts even when they are hard. We feel like when he makes a commitment he needs to learn to stick to it. He disagrees. We are trying to be good parents and teach him good values. He is trying to throw the biggest fit possible every day in the hopes of wearing us down. Sigh.
Davis had a huge fight with Michael and me this evening. Davis loves piano and usually likes to practice, but he HATES to fail at anything and the last thing he had to do for piano practice this evening was very challenging. Davis couldn't do it. So he quit and threw a HUGE fit when we insisted he try again. He screamed and screamed and huge tears rolled down his face. We stayed calm but firm and he still kept screaming and refusing for 30 minutes. Finally he said he would rather go to bed right away rather than finish his piano lesson. We felt like if we let him give up then we weren't being good parents. We feel like he should learn that lots of people aren't good at things and that the only way you can get better is by trying harder. He disagrees. He refuses to try anything that he isn't good at right away. He would rather quit and he is very, very, very stubborn. So we have a battle of wills. It is horrible. After he calmed down a bit tonight I told him that we as parents had three jobs. We had to keep him safe, keep him healthy and make sure he grows up to be a good grown-up. He told me I had already done that and that I was done. I could just leave him alone, because I'd done all the parenting he needed.
AND HE'S NOT EVEN EIGHT YET.
I foresee his teenage years not going very easily.
Eventually the threat of missing me reading The Dawn Treader was too much for him to bear and he ran to the piano to try his lesson again. He did it and I read and we were all a happy little family. Till next time...
Parenting is such hard work!