How to Handle a Stubborn Child?

It will come as no suprise to my loyal few readers, but I have a very stubborn strong-willed little girl. While this trait can certainly be a good thing at times, it is not particularly endearing in a toddler on a day-to-day basis. It is tiring and exasperating and sometimes just too much to handle again. That's where we are today.

A little background...On Saturday afternoon, Emily was outside "helping" daddy mow the grass. She ran along the sidewalk to the front door and fell and scraped both knees. One was just a small scrape, the other was much bigger and covered most of her knee. It required a large bandage instead of a regular sized one. She cried a lot and we babied her quite a bit the rest of the day, not making her walk on it a lot, since we knew it had to hurt.

Well, suffice it to say that she has not walked since Sunday at church, and that was only because she had absolutely no other option. She knew we were going and she would have to walk and so she did. And she was perfectly fine, as are her knees.

We have tried absolutely everything...and I mean everything, to get her to walk, but she stubbornly refuses. It got to the point that she has skipped lunch for two days in a row now, both times because she refuses to obey me and go to the bathroom first. (I won't bore you with the details.) She has been spanked, she has had things taken away (no videos or games or interesting tv - I made her watch HGTV all day yesterday!) She has lied, promising to walk if she gets something she wants, but we caught on to that immediately and punished her accordingly. It's gotten ugly here and I frankly have no idea what else to do. She has thrown horrible temper tantrums and is just generally nasty to us and I'm beyond frustrated and ready to lose my temper. I know I can't, but I honestly don't know what else to do. I can't go anywhere or do anything because she will not walk and I am not willingly to take her somewhere to have a huge fit because I'm sure that on the day I try to force the issue in public, someone will surely try to turn me in for "child abuse" for trying to get my child to obey me and walk like a normal person. She currently "crab walks" which proves to me that her knees are just fine, since that is much harder on them than walking would be. She even goes upstairs that way and climbs on the furniture that way. It's beyond ridiculous and her stubborn attitude is even going beyond just the walking issue now.

I feel like we're a case for the "super nanny" show.

So, does anyone have any advice? I'm just worn down from fighting and I don't know what to do.