Can't Do it Myself-itis

For the last year Can't Do it Myselfitis has been running rampant in my household. The worst case is my 4 year old daughter LaLa. She knows how to do things like put her shoes on, get dressed, get a drink of water, but she insists upon help. It is maddening. We can be running 15 min late, I am telling her that we are going to be late, she knows the consequences of being late and she will still insist that I help her put her shoes on. Now lets say I refuse. The first symptom of Can't Do it Myselfitis is the whine. "But Mommaaaaa I neeeeed heeeelp." Which is then followed by a feeble attempt. I am sure you have all seen this. LaLa's favorite feeble attempt would be pretending that she is trying to shove her foot into her shoe with absolutely no force behind the actual push. This is the one thing that irritates me beyond anything. Self restraint isn't always my forte' and this is one of the things that can send me over the edge. I could deal with it if she was actually trying and couldn't get a shoe on, but faking it....grrrrrr. Finally she realizes that I am not going to help and she is going to have to get the shoe on herself. She cries and does what she needs to do to get the job accomplished, but she doesn't like it and is going to let me know.

Thankfully KiKi is fiercely independent. I try to help her put on shoes, and she tells me no. I try to help open a juice box, and she doesn't want help (but I help anyways because I don't want to clean up a resulting mess). I wonder if when she hit 4 years old I am going to have another case of Can't Do it Myselfitis on my hands.