Danny ChaiAbby is also in a rebellious phase, terrible twos, I guess, but from what I’ve seen and heard from other parents, it’s relatively mild. Just the normal wanting to do the opposite of what we say. It’s fun to play around with, really. When she gets really gets into a contrary rhythm I mix things up, just to test her. Like:
“Time to go potty.”
“I don’t *wanna* go potty.”
“Wash your hands.”
“I don’t *wanna* wash my hands.”
“Eat dessert.”
“I don’t *wanna*… (pause as it sinks in) yes.”
What I find particularly amusing is that recently, her “yes” sounds like Borat.
The thing about this is, it’s exceedingly easy to manipulate her rebellion, and because it’s so easy, I utilize it all the time. Like, when we were in Oregon, our room had a full-size bed and an inflatable mattress on the floor. We (more Jieun) wanted Abby to sleep on the mattress. How to do that? Easy. I just said, “Daddy and Mommy sleep on the mattress. Not Abby.”
She immediately responded with “No, ABBY sleep on the mattress.”
To reinforce, I came back with, “No Abby. Mommy and Daddy.”
And now she’s really insistent, “ABBY SLEEP ON MATTRESS.”
So I say fine and let her have “her” way. I do this with a whole host of things, using the same pattern: say that only Mommy and Daddy can do something, not Abby, have her protest, say it one more time to reinforce it, then let her do it. Super effective.
Jieun was asking me though, is this really how I want to get her to do things? Wouldn’t it be better if we got her to actually obey? Hmm, I hadn’t even thought of that. I suppose my nature is to go for the immediate easy solutions. And yeah, in the long run, it’s probably better to get her to obey. But man, it’s hard to give up something that works so well.