In a Minute

Today, I had a parenting fail.  Moose has this stupid entertaining book of songs that she LOVES.  We were reading it for the 7th time this morning and I asked her if she wanted to hear "This Old Man" again.  She looked at me and said, "in a minute."

Let me back up a bit.  For the past 4 months or so, "no" has been Moose's favorite word.  She now has many variations of "no."

• Oh no.
• Mama no!
• No more.
• Uh...no.
• No way.
• I said no.

All of those ways to say no and not one way to say yes.  Today, I realized that is perhaps due to what we model for her.  Today, I also realized that her way of saying "yes," is " in a minute."  Wonder where she learned that?!  (insert sheepish look).

To be fair, I entertain most of her requests, I just don't say the word "yes."  For instance, if she says, "sippy please," I say, "mommy will get you a sippy."  When she says "book," I say, "go choose a book and Mommy will read it."  So, although many of her requests are met with a "yes" action, the word "yes" is rarely spoken.

And then there is the "in a minute," which she thinks means yes.  FAIL.  When she asks for something that she can have, but not immediately, I say "in a minute."  This morning she asked for eggs.  Eggs cannot be given instantaneously, so I said, "mommy has to cook them."  Being a toddler, she of course kept asking and asking, so I said "in a minute."  Another example: when she asks to go outside, I say "in a minute, we have to get shoes on."  

When I put it that way, it doesn't seem quite as much like a fail, but it certainly reminds me to be aware of what I say.  Clearly we have modeled "no" quite a bit and now we have modeled "in a minute."  Today's response to her book was quick lesson that we need to start modeling the more "yes" a bit more in our house.

Has anyone else had any parenting fails lately?  C'mon...it'll make me feel better.

Moose and I reading.  See, I'm not an awful parent!