Well, it's started. I always knew it would, although I secretly hoped that we had avoided this stage when I witnessed others dealing with this at an earlier point in their child's development. Of course, no such luck. Granted our child has put her own twist on this particularly annoying chapter in her little life, as we should have suspected she would. I'm not sure what is worse: "Why" or "Why not?"
As you may have guessed, our darling 3YO has opted for the latter, despite the nature of the statement which precedes the query. You see, whether we say, "You can't watch TV right now," or, "You need to eat your vegetables," the response would consistently be, "Why not?" Which not only makes you want to pull your hair out (because of course this is usually the 50th time in the last hour your little one has posed that same question), but also makes you pause and wonder if this little dynamo understood the statement to begin with.
I do realize it is all part of growing up and learning, and that her curiosity is to be commended. She is, after all, only trying to learn more about this world she came into as a blank slate. Some people even try to expand the learning experience by throwing it back at their kids with, "Why do YOU think?" and wait for them to respond. I'm sure my little imp would simply also adopt this question into our daily routine at regular (read: annoying dripping faucet) intervals.
So for now I'll do my best to respond to the questions that actually have a response, despite the fact that when I do it really doesn't appear to matter greatly in her world. My response is often returned with an obscure change of conversation as only a healthy toddler can do.
Then again, maybe I should just stick to the tried and true statement coined by my own Mom (and I'm sure countless mothers before her): "It's because I said so!"
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