Saturday, September 21, 2013

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!




6 comments:

  1. I have a parenting fail EVERY day! I'm hoping that if the good outweighs the bad, they'll turn out just fine! I loved your post because it's something I do to and I have to remind myself that it's progress, not perfection.

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    1. Thank you so much, Sandy! I think you are right that our kids will turn out fine if we do more good than bad. No one is perfect, so I think that if we do the best we can, we are doing well!

      Thanks again for commenting. :)

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  2. There are way too many fails to choose from, LOL!! My daughter is always saying something (that's usually funny) that she shouldn't. My favorite fail has to be when she screamed "Grandma!!" at a lady that favored my Mom. The lady was a little younger than my Mother so I don't think she found it all that funny.

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    1. Lol! That is hysterical!! Glad someone else has fails. What can you do but laugh at them though?!

      Thanks so much for commenting! :)

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  3. I think every parent has that moment of realization their children are definitely paying attention. My friend's moment recently was when her baby was crying at her daughter said "Oh ENOUGH already!" It's not so much a fail. And it will be funny later!

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    1. That is absolutely hilarious! Kids really do say the funniest things when they repeat adults. Moose got "I said no" from my mom and "C'mon" from me. She also said shit at school yesterday, which wasn't a proud moment, but I did have to laugh. What else can you do?!

      Thanks for commenting! :)

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I would love to hear from you, so please take a minute to leave me any comments, suggestions, funny stories, or advice about this journey called Mommyhood.

Becky :)