Jackson: I DON’T WANT TOAST, NOOOOO! No! No! No! No! No!
Me: You know what? Whining isn’t really the best way to get what you want in life.
Jackson: It isn’t?
Me: No.
Jackson: I’m so confused.
Me: Uh . . .
Jackson: And normally it’s very difficult to confuse me.
Me: . . .
Jackson: So thanks for clearing that up, Mom!
Me: Ohmygod, before I shoot myself I just want to know what to make you for breakfast.
Jackson: I’ll have some cereal, please.
I wish I had given Celeste your response last night when we had the “nothing for dinner
okay I’ll have peanutbutter
no not on toast I want it on a spoon
no I want it on toast”
conversation.
When I give my 2-year old that response, he just escalates the whining to Level Orange.
Just for one day I want to walk around whining and tattling like my kids do. Though, I’m pretty sure I’d get slapped…a lot.
I’m pretty sure that Jackson and my oldest daughter, Jenna, are somehow related…
At our place, that runs something like this:
Fizzy: Uh uh uh! Juice! More! Juice! Waaaaaahhh! No! No juice! Waaah! Do away, Mummy!
Me: (sternly) What’s the rule about whining, Fizzy? Can you remember?
Fizzy: (shaking her head) No whining! No whining!
Me: Good. So what do we say?
Fizzy: More juice please, Mummy?
Me: Good girl! Nice use of words. But sorry, you’ve had enough juice today.
Fizzy: Waaaahh! Uh uh uh! Some juice! More! Juice!
My youngest goes for the excessively sweet approach, but my oldest is all about the whining. The whining never works, unless his goal is to make me feel like a part of my brain is dying, in that case it works great.
I so feel your pain.
my husband is in charge of feeding the children breakfast. i am laying in bed gathering my thoughts and feeling really glad that i am not part of the drama. i get the drama for the rest of the day. who am i to keep him from his share?
Thanks for making me smile this afternoon … I am SOOOOOOO there with my two oldest!
At least in my experience, this stage (the do.not.want whining) passes. I strongarmed it down by playing “I give you a limited number of options and you pick one and if you don’t then you go hungry, rubber biscuit”; it worked on the rejection and the whining.
Course, 11 is a whole new set of problems. But at least the whining stopped. Also, he makes his own breakfast now.
hee hee. He’s kind of a smart-ass.
At least he said please….you’ve done well.