bad case of the I WANTs

It's son-day again, time to talk about my adorable 34 month old son's more challenging behaviors. 75% of Oliver's sentences begin with "I want". Of those, at least half are "I want something else," or "I want something new." For the past three days I have been diligently trying to replace "I want" with "May I please have", making absolutely no headway. He will say it if I reminded, but not on his own. Until just before dinner....

As I was cooking he renewed his pleas, begun hours earlier, for a cookie. And wouldn't you know it, entirely unprompted, from his mouth comes "May I please have a cookie?" It being just before dinner, I wasn't about to give him a cookie. It was painful, for both of us. I made a big fuss over his saying what I hoped he would say, but still didn't give him the cookie. Fortunately, he ate all of his dinner, even the second helping he asked for (rare that he asks and when he does, almost unheard of that he ate it all) and some fruit. I offered him a cookie and all was right with the world. He even wanted to share, saving the last bite for me.

This was one of those days where I found myself thinking I probably tortured my family just like this when I was growing up. And I wasn't nearly as cute as Oliver.