After Cubby and Charlie had finished their grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, I told them to get suited up to go outside. And while they were out there, they could get a sled-load of firewood from the shed for me.
Cubby immediately got a mutinous look on his face and announced very huffily, "No! I won't."
Now this is the kind of attitude that makes me want to let fly with an immediate backhand. I restrained myself, however, and instead went with the Approved Modern Parenting approach.
I knelt down at his eye level (he of course refused to meet my eyes) and told him in a very calm, low voice, "All morning you have been eating the food I prepared for you, wearing the clothes I washed for you, in a house that I have cleaned for you. Your contribution today is going to be getting some wood to keep the house warm."
His response, still with the attitude: "What does getting wood have to do with clean clothes?"
Me, still breathing deep and maintaining my tenuous control: "We all contribute to a pleasant house. Your contribution is getting the wood."
His response: "WHY?"
My distinctly un-modern-parenting response: "BECAUSE I SAID SO. NOW GET OUTSIDE."
He got.
Damn straight.
It's the cliched parenting answer from time immemorial for a reason: Because sometimes, "Because I said so," is all that's left to say.
3 comments:
Seriously, at some point, logic and dialogue become a means to delay, confront, test boundaries and patience - in short, a no win battle. That's the point where the "just do it" becomes the patient parent's only option of choice. So, you achieved a win win because you got the wood and they got team building outside time!
Good for trying twice! After the first, it's hard to continue being reasonable.
Day by day....
-moi
I've been away for awhile and was having fun catching up, but this made my day! You go girl!!
Awesome parenting!
Susan, in NC
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