Moments in Parenting When You Don’t Know What to Say
This past weekend we celebrated my boy’s birthday. He awoke excited for the day, but then descended into his trademark morning grumpiness. The prospect of going to church before his party didn’t jibe with his desired schedule of the day’s activities, and he didn’t at all care for our telling him “No” when he made certain demands.
His response:
“No” is not a word you say to the birthday boy.
This from the guy who had just opened a gargantuan Unicron transformer toy.
“Here is Unicron. Now, stop playing with Unicron. We have to listen about how trivial are the things of this world.”
Unicron vs. God…who wins?
> “No is not a word you say to the birthday boy”.
Heh. I get these sorts from Jack and Hannah every once in a while and my response is usually something of this nature…
“Is this the rule? Hold on a second… look me in the eye here. (gives them a Daddy Stare). Are you sure you want this to be the rule? I have a birthday too, you know. Are you reeeeeeealy sure you want it to be the rule that you can’t say ‘no’ to a birthday boy?”
Good response.
I know what I’d say, but I’m not sure choke is a word.
I glared, and then said “No.”
“And since I said ‘No’, it must not be your birthday. I guess we have to send that present back.”
“Reductios aren’t a trick you pull on the birthday boy.”
My kids are familiar with my all purpose response to just about everything: “Wanna bet?”
I initially read “gargantuan Unicron transformer toy” as “gargantuan Unicorn transformer toy” and promptly sighed… “Et tu, Hasbro?”