Defiance

First, we bit the bullet and enrolled in the online class. We are scared/ excited. We already had vacation scheduled but we will be in a place without help so we will have 5 kids participating with us. 4 are 8-15 and one is a baby. Should be interesting, but the timing is too good to pass up.

My question:
My son, 8 years old, gets really out of instructional control and I can see that he is going to slip right through both chores and the rule of 3. He just gets so stubborn! I feel that there must be something I can do/say to help him not wrack up all the consequences since I see the stubbornness enter and know it is going down hill fast. How can I help him? Last night he wanted a dessert and I said “Some nights we have dessert and some nights we don’t, tonight is a no dessert night” (they had had a lot of sugar for Christmas). He also wanted something else for dinner. He blocked my way to the shower and told me I wasn’t allowed to go to the shower unless I talked to dad and told him he could have something else for dinner and that if he ate a few carrots could he have dessert. I feel it became a power struggle of my saying I would talk to his dad about an alternative dinner, but it was a “no” answer to dessert. He went all the way to 24 hour loss of privileges. Again, is there any way to help avoid this since I see it coming?

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