What Henry Doesn't Know
Henry is going through a stage. At least I hope it's a stage. He's practicing demanding things, and demanding that those things be done his way, in his time frame. I find this "cute".
"One chocolate cookie, NOW!", "Go home, NOW!", "No home NOW!", "No diaper change!!", "Juice NOW!", "NO NAP!!!"... You get the picture. He makes his demand and then looks at me - like he's evaluating the effectiveness of his command, but also in a way that shows the seriousness of the situation.
What Henry doesn't know is that I don't really care how serious someone is when they make demands. Let me be crystal clear: I don't care. It's a cold, hard fact that when I am on the receiving end of bossiness, I stop cold. While the effect is supposed to gain my attention, I turn off. You want juice when? Surely not now...
We respond, or lack response, in different ways. Sometimes I suggest he add a "please" to his demand, other times I ignore it altogether. Mostly I do what I think is important for him and remind him that in fact we don't speak like that to one another, and try to make it a "teachable moment".
But sometimes I just wanna say, "Go get your own dadgum juice and go take a nap. NOW!"
"One chocolate cookie, NOW!", "Go home, NOW!", "No home NOW!", "No diaper change!!", "Juice NOW!", "NO NAP!!!"... You get the picture. He makes his demand and then looks at me - like he's evaluating the effectiveness of his command, but also in a way that shows the seriousness of the situation.
What Henry doesn't know is that I don't really care how serious someone is when they make demands. Let me be crystal clear: I don't care. It's a cold, hard fact that when I am on the receiving end of bossiness, I stop cold. While the effect is supposed to gain my attention, I turn off. You want juice when? Surely not now...
We respond, or lack response, in different ways. Sometimes I suggest he add a "please" to his demand, other times I ignore it altogether. Mostly I do what I think is important for him and remind him that in fact we don't speak like that to one another, and try to make it a "teachable moment".
But sometimes I just wanna say, "Go get your own dadgum juice and go take a nap. NOW!"
posted by Kevin and Stace @ 11:25 AM
1 Comments:
At 6:33 PM,
grampy said…
1. I recommend you keep "What Henry Doesn't Know" and give it to him on birthdays 12-20. It is a good learning piece.
2. "Dadgum"----DADGUM!??????Stace this is a throwback to your granpa-the one who gave your dolly a toothpaste mustache.....wasn't certain you would ever forgive him. But "Dadgum" is appropriate-- as is Scissorbill, in certain settings. On to this juvenile word verifica................
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