I sure hope that the new diet will help[ Joey.  I am struggling at times to deal with some aspects of his behaviour.  In essence, we are butting heads.  I ask him to do something and sometimes I have to ask several times and it then becomes a conflict.  From my perspective, I am asking for something quite reasonable and I should not need to always explain why he has to do it eg come down the stairs to finish his dinner.  I ask him 2 or 3 times and then I insist and when he he asks me why, I say because I am telling him to.  Yesterday at dinner, Anne then intervened on Joey's side (as I saw it) and I just got fed up and went upstairs to get away from it all for a while.  It turns out that Joey was then very upset at having upset me.

I should, of course, have behaved better myself.  It is difficult but I do think that when we let Joey get off with too much, it blurs the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable behaviour and that does him no good either.  It is so difficult to get the balance right.  Not being on his case all the time, building hyis confidence but also ensuring that he does understand what is and is not acceptable behaviour.