I Must Be Naive

I had no idea how smart preschool-age kids can be.   I really thought it would take a while for the Big One to get so savvy.

Boy was I wrong.

The kid knows how to stall at bed time.   Nobody modeled this behavior, she just figured it out.

She already tries to play Mommy and Daddy against each other.  When the FixItMommy tells her NO, she immediately goes to Daddy and puts her bottom lip out, bats her eyelashes and says sheepishly, “Daddy, can I pleeeeeeeeaaassseeee have _____________.”  {Fill in whatever it is she wants.}

Today she pulled a new one on me. She was looking at some pictures a friend had on her Facebook page from Disneyland (one of my friends, hers aren’t on FB yet!).  When she sees pictures of Disneyland she asks if we can go there.   Again I really don’t know how she really figured out that there was a place filled with rides, Mickey Mouse and lots of fun, but somewhere along the way she did.   And for several months now has been asking to go.

So as we looked at these pictures, she asked again if we could go to Disneyland, today.   I told her that no we could not go to Disneyland today.   It’s a very special place and we will make plans to go someday when she is a little bigger and definitely a day when the Daddy was here to go with us.

Her response, “Well, you NEVER take us anywhere.   Daddy likes to take us places. But you NEVER take us anywhere!!!”

I was shocked.  Number one where in the world did the teenage attitude come from?  Are you kidding me?  I NEVER take them anywhere?  What planet does this child live on?  Especially with the Husband deployed, I take them everywhere.  And I don’t just mean to the store or errands.  We’ve been to the park, to My First Gym, basketball, preschool, friends’ houses and that’s just the last week or so.   She is so abused, I NEVER take them anywhere.   Lord help her (and me) when she is 15.