apples

I had a flashback today while I was dealing with my three year old. A flashback in reverse. I was attempting to talk to my willful child and she would not look at me. I said to her "you can look at me and talk this through with me or go back into time out." She very calmly placed herself in timeout and turned her head away from me. She did her three minutes in silence and walked to the bathroom (where she was supposed to be before her fit that got her in timeout the first time). I walked into the bathroom to talk to her and she was turned around on the toilet so that her back was to me. I knelt next to her and sat there quietly as she stared at the wall, not flinching, not glancing back, nothing. And suddenly it hit me. The memory of my father staring at me, stone faced and irritated while I refused to give him the satisfaction of eye contact. One little defiant apple rolling slowly away from the tree.