"You cannot win!"

Here is another one that happened some time back but is classic Aanika all the way.

One time, as Aanika was taking her time finishing dinner, her mom was encouraging her to finish quickly. Her mom went through the usual motivations - if you eat at regular speed, you will grow up to be big and strong - lets see if you can finish before I count to 10 - dont you want to finish quickly and then play with your toys - and so on. None of these were having their usual desired effect on Aanika today.

Now Aanika has a bit of a competitive streak in her and so her mom pulled out the final option, "Lets see if I can finishes doing dishes first or you finish your dinner first." This immediately make Aanika sit up and get going on her dinner - for a moment. After the first mouthful, back some the retort to mom, "but you just cannot win!".

Mom says, "How come?"

"Well, you see, if I dont finish my dinner, you wont have my dish to wash and without that you wont be done with your dishes. The only way you can be done with you dishes is after I am done with my dinner..." (implying, "...at my pace") "So no matter what, you cannot win!"

What an amazing grasp of cause and effect at the age of 4.