One of the more interesting side effects of parenting Z has been a significant decrease in my gutter mouth and a concurrent significant increase in my general human decency.
Because we are trying to practice what we preach, I find myself thanking CG and Z and anyone around me PROFUSELY for ANYTHING. I suddenly have a seriously low threshold for a "Please". I'm always pointing out to Z how we need to ask waiters nicely for our milk, how we should thank people for gifts of all kinds and how we need to acknowledge people when they say hello to us.
Hmmm, maybe I need to work on all those things too.
I never realized how many times I just bark at CG "Can you get me some water while you're in there?" or "When you get out of bed, I need you to pick up your clothes.". Now it's all "Could you PLEASE get me some water? Thank you SO MUCH." and "I would really appreciate it if you would PLEASE pick up your clothes. THANK YOU."
I point out all the time how "Mommy and Daddy are sharing a cookie", or whatever, and realize with a start that usually Mommy tries to eat most of the cookie before Daddy realizes it's gone. Mommy was previously NOT a good sharer. Especially of cookies.
Z is finally starting to say "please" without prompting, though now our issue is that she thinks "please" is some kind of magical word that is the key to her dreams. Many a tantrum starts with a loud and shrill "Please! PLEEEAAAASSSE!!" Like, "C'mon woman! Can't you hear I'm saying the Magic Word?!?!"
Well, like I said, we both need some work still.
3 comments:
Addy went through a phase a few months ago when she thought please was some kind of magic word, too. Probably because her moron mom would prompt her to ask nicely for things by saying in a sing-song voice, "What's the magic word?" I quit doing that real fast!
I am a terrible cookie sharer. Like a two year old. "No, you can't have a bite!" I want to yell. "MIIIINE!"
I know that I've GOT to stop swearing like a sailor. Maddie picks up on things so quickly and in no time she'll be cursing me out.
*sigh* The sacrifices we have to make for our children....
This is so great. I've found, too, that I've had to explain so often WHY we do thoughtful things, I've re-learned it myself.
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