The other night, Harvey was eating carrots with his dinner. We usually give him some ranch to dip carrots in, because he'll eat more carrots that way, but I had forgotten to give him some. So after a couple minutes he said, "Dad, I can have some ranch?"
For a long time, whenever he asked for something without using "please", we'd correct him and make him ask again. That didn't seem to improve the situation very much. So we started telling him, "No, you can't have that because you didn't say please. You can ask again in a few minutes and say please." He always remembered to say "please" the second time, and it did seem to help in reminding him to use it the first time he asked.
Now we've decided to try flat out denial, no second chance. So when he asked, "Dad, I can have some ranch?", I told him no, because he hadn't said "please". He didn't say anything else, so I thought that was that. Apparently, though, he thought I meant to ask again later (probably because we've just started the no-second-chance thing), because in a few minutes he very politely asked, "Dad, please I can have some ranch?"
This time, I explained to him that he wouldn't be getting ranch, because he hadn't said "please" the first time he asked. He was quite upset by that, and had a small fit, but he calmed down pretty fast. He went back to eating.
A few minutes later, "Dad, I can have some ketchup, please?"
6 comments:
Haha! It's amazing how smart kids are. Did he actually LIKE the carrots with ketchup? Sounds pretty nasty to me.
He ate all of the carrots and ketchup. I guess he liked it?
It does sound pretty gross.
Oh my goodness, that is so funny! You have a pretty smart little kid there. And I don't know that I'd eat ketchup with my carrots, but more power to him for doing it.
He sounds like a little boy I used to know named Kurt!
And taking after his uncle Jim as well.
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