Okaasan wo obaka to itte ha ikemasen.
We're having delayed onset terrible twos, or some kind of insecurity issue thing triggered by new baby brother anticipation. The Pumpkin Princess has become terribly impatient when things don't go her way. The other day, she was halfway through dinner and she demanded to have leftover cake while her plate still held a good amount of carrots, fish and other nourishing things slightly less attractive than the Pumpkin Granny's chiffon cake decorated with pink and green gumdrops on homemade icing. I told her no, she could have cake if she ate all her carrots and a little more fish. She responded with "No! I want cake! Hurry! Dummy!"
The Pumpkin Daddy said, "you must not call Mommy 'dummy.'"
So I'm thinking, yay, cool, united parental disciplinary front, but the Pumpkin Daddy continued, "Mommy is the highest educated person in this family. If you want to call Mommy dummy, get your PhD, and then maybe you can call her dummy."
Um, I don't think that's the point here...
4 comments:
You have learned the most important lesson in feeding children. 'Don't let them even see dessert until they've finished eating enough dinner'. We had so many tears over this in the past. Even at church dinners where the organizers would put dessert in the middle of the table at the beginning of the meal and wonder why the kiddies never finished their vegetables!
Actually, I used to try to do the "don't let her see it!" thing, but the kid's vision seemed to have a high acuity for sugar, and it sees right through grocery bags and refrigerator doors. We've done the "dessert as a bribe, oops, I mean, positive reinforcement" thing (finish those vegetables and you can have your pudding) for a while now, and it has usually worked pretty well. I saw them do it at day care on Parents' Day, so I followed suit.
Waaaaaakakakakakakakakakakk... your last sentence there is talking volume (^_^)v
Little kids are fast learners, and their brains are the best copy+paste machines.
Even if we don't teach them to be rude at home, they could pick it out so easily from the world out there, something that we don't have fully control of.
Hey, it's not bribing, it's rewarding.
Waaakakakakakakakkakakak... (^o^)v
We reward our kids with something lovely when they keep the good behaviors. That's how the world's works. If you do good in life, you go to heaven, right?
In here, we really compartmentalized baby Lex's meal time. One at a time (cos that's how he likes to enjoy his meal). Don't show the meatballs before he finished the little piece of omelette. And never show any puddings or chocolates or cakes before he eats his fresh cut fruit.
Sounds like the kind of thing we might say in our household, sadly. Humor trumps good manners frequently.
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