P's and Q's
I try to teach my kids to say the right things. “Please” when they want something. “Thank you” when they get it. “Whoops” when they spill things. If they’re going to spend their days whining about this and that, the least they can do is sound grateful when they finally get it, and alert me when they spill it.
Abbie has mastered the “whoops” concept. If she trips and drops her milk, she says “whoops.” That’s proper “whoops” usage, but Abbie expands its meaning to include intentional acts. If she throws her milk because she’s done with it, she wants to see what happens when it hit the ground, or maybe she’s just trying to beat her personal best in milk tossing, she says “whoops.” I remind her that that’s not a “whoops” moment, that’s a big trouble moment. She keeps saying “whoops” though, and I try to stay thankful that I get an immediate notice that there’s milk spilled on the floor.
“Please” isn’t coming as well. I try to remind them to use “please” when they want something, but it tends to slip my mind. A lot of things tend to slip my mind when all three of them are screaming in dissonant unison for Kool-Aid at the dinner table. Abbie says “please” occasionally, especially if I refuse her initial request, but I need to keep reinforcing it.
“Thank you” has room for improvement, but it may be sinking in better than I thought. Tonight we were at a crafts table. The craft involved coloring with markers, but the boys were happiest pulling lids off the markers. I stayed on lid patrol, refastening the lids as soon as the boys dropped the marker so the lids would stay organized and the markers would stay moist. Tory picked up a marker with a stubborn lid that he couldn’t remove.
“Color!” he said to the table supervisor while holding up the marker. He whiffed on the “please” concept, but the woman behind the table understood and removed the lid for him.
“Thank you,” he said back with no prompt from me. What he actually said sounded closer to “Dah Toh,” but the important thing is it involved two syllables and the woman behind the table interpreted it as “thank you.”
“You’re welcome” she replied as I beamed with pride. A lesson had sunk in thanks to my constant use of “thank you” around the house.
The boys continued playing with markers, pulling off the lids, dropping them, and grabbing new ones. They never said “whoops” while dropping things, so maybe they also understand the concept of whoops only applying to accidental acts.
Abbie has mastered the “whoops” concept. If she trips and drops her milk, she says “whoops.” That’s proper “whoops” usage, but Abbie expands its meaning to include intentional acts. If she throws her milk because she’s done with it, she wants to see what happens when it hit the ground, or maybe she’s just trying to beat her personal best in milk tossing, she says “whoops.” I remind her that that’s not a “whoops” moment, that’s a big trouble moment. She keeps saying “whoops” though, and I try to stay thankful that I get an immediate notice that there’s milk spilled on the floor.
“Please” isn’t coming as well. I try to remind them to use “please” when they want something, but it tends to slip my mind. A lot of things tend to slip my mind when all three of them are screaming in dissonant unison for Kool-Aid at the dinner table. Abbie says “please” occasionally, especially if I refuse her initial request, but I need to keep reinforcing it.
“Thank you” has room for improvement, but it may be sinking in better than I thought. Tonight we were at a crafts table. The craft involved coloring with markers, but the boys were happiest pulling lids off the markers. I stayed on lid patrol, refastening the lids as soon as the boys dropped the marker so the lids would stay organized and the markers would stay moist. Tory picked up a marker with a stubborn lid that he couldn’t remove.
“Color!” he said to the table supervisor while holding up the marker. He whiffed on the “please” concept, but the woman behind the table understood and removed the lid for him.
“Thank you,” he said back with no prompt from me. What he actually said sounded closer to “Dah Toh,” but the important thing is it involved two syllables and the woman behind the table interpreted it as “thank you.”
“You’re welcome” she replied as I beamed with pride. A lesson had sunk in thanks to my constant use of “thank you” around the house.
The boys continued playing with markers, pulling off the lids, dropping them, and grabbing new ones. They never said “whoops” while dropping things, so maybe they also understand the concept of whoops only applying to accidental acts.
posted by Matt at
11:35 PM
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