Our first and last mule headed stand with are oldest (about 6 years old at the time) was when she decided not to eat her peas. In a very stereotypical parental move we said "you don't leave the table until you eat your peas". That was our first indication of just how stubborn she could be. She sat there for 3 hours just starring at us in a very evil way. We finally had to give up, but, it wasn't without some bad feelings all around. Absolutely, not the way to handle it, but, she was our first born and we had never run into that problem before. We didn't ever do it again and I don't recommend it to anyone. We decided to give up as soon as it occurred to us that she was probably going to be the one that decided what nursing home she was going to eventually put us in. It didn't scar her, but, it also didn't weaken her stubborn tendency either.