Who's the Boss?

My almost-four-year-old, "the Boss", is bossy (hence the nickname, get it? and on a side note that is my first and hopefully last time using "hence" in a blog). He's not just a little bossy...he's a LOT bossy. He tries to boss the older kids, the younger kids, the adults, and the dog. He even bosses the toys, the tv, and the flies that land on his lunch.

We've had at least three conversations that have gone something like this:

Me: No, Nicky, please don't ___________. (fill in the blank with something annoying)

Him: Why not? (Doing it again.)

Me: I said no.

Him: I said yes.

Me: You need to do what mama says the first time.

Him: You're not the boss. I the boss.

Me: No, mama is the boss.

Him: No, I the boss.

Me: Okay, if you're the boss then you can get a job and buy the food and make dinner and do the dishes and clean the house and do the laundry and make sure everyone gets to school and help with homework and supervise chores and kill the spiders that come into the house. (This is a good one...we've had some giant, hairy spiders.)

Him: No, I not do laundry and spiders. You the boss.

Me: Okay, that's all I'm saying.

Ana likes to interject that mama is the boss because God said so. Oh yeah, that too. But there's nothing like a little spider-killin' to show the kiddos who's really in charge around here.