I just noticed something I do to my son. I didn't realize I did this until today. It's one of those things that will eventually come back to bite me in the arse.
W. is 9. Technically he is 9 years and 7 months. This being said, I'm wondering, do you do this too? Do you sometimes refer to your child's actual age and other times add a year? Let me clarify this with an example.
W.: "Mom, I don't waaaaannnnnnaaaa take a shower!!"
Me: "Please stop whining, you are going to be 10 years old!"
W.: "Mom, can I get a cell phone?"
Me: "Why do you need a cell phone? You are only 9!"
See what I mean?
I use the span of a few months to twist my responses to him in a way that will work for ME. He can't possibly ever win, can he?
I know it sounds like total manipulation of my child. You are probably right and Dr. Phil would be ripping me a new one if he read this. But I look at it this way, in a few years he'll catch on. He'll be working me instead.
Me: "W., call me when you get there and be home early."
W.: "Oh Mom! I'm not a little kid, I'm almost 15!"
Me: "W., if you want some extra spending money, maybe you should get a job?"
W.: "A JOB? I'm only 14, I'm just a kid! I don't need a job yet!"
10 comments:
LOL. Yep, I do this too.
"You are SIX! You can get dressed all by yourself!"
"You only just turned SIX! You can't walk to the neighbor's by yourself..."
yeah I do it too. you are almost 5 wipe your own butt, dress yourself etc. No you can't
(insert something here) you are only 4.
I think all parents do it.
i do it too! and mine are only 3 and 2.
don't be so hard on yourself. you're ONLY 40.
;)
I do THE SAME thing to my 11 year old son!
Yes, I do this!! I didn't even realize I did it until I read this. Well, this is probably not so bad compared to some of the other things that I do.
OK - seriously, I cannot type a comment, I am killing myself laughing...and relating!!!!
AWESOME POST!
So true! I do it all the time.
I could hear myself all through this post. I just said it this morning. Liv was getting dressed and asked me to help her get her socks on. I said, "You are almost 9. I think you should be able to do this by yourself."
And she won't be nine until July. So, I was like not only exaggerating and twisting facts, I was pretty much downright lying.
So..well...whatever works.
And yeah...she'll use it on me soon enough. "Mom, you are almost 70. Don't you think you're too old to be flirting with grocery boys?"
Work it while you can. It is nice to have the upper hand.
I never really thought about it, but this is soooo true!!!
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