Under duress, yet in the safety of his mother’s arms, Isaac, now 2, uttered his first complete sentence on Memorial Day: “I doe wanna do diss!” This milestone subject and predicate were book-ended by emphatic strings of “No no no no no no no!”
The thing he so desperately didn’t want to do was float around in the big pool at the Padonia Park Club while we held onto each other. I’ve ordered a swim tube for him that has yet to arrive, and until it does, we’ll spend our weekends clinging to each other like koalas while he blats his displeasure in my ear.
Despite his protestations, I let him bellow “no” over and over again for all the world to hear because he’s 2 and he says no to everything these days, even when he actually means to say yes. For instance, you can say, “Ike, do you want some Cheerios for breakfast?” and he’ll shout “No!” and then as soon as you pour them on the tray of his high chair, he’ll start stuffing them into his mouth. Also, I have a feeling he’s going to warm up to bobbing around in the pool before summer gets too far underway. To top it off, I selfishly wanted to stay in the big pool with my husband and daughter, and so I let the little one go on hollering.
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My question for you is this: Do you think the kids should get a vote on such matters? Clearly he wasn’t in any danger, he was just mad that he wasn’t getting his way when he was tired and a little frightened of something new. I figure that if he isn’t coaxed into trying something out for longer than a few minutes that he’ll never realize how much he likes it. Does that make me mean or is it good to instill a little stoicism early in life? Should I give in to every cry of “no, I doe wanna do diss” or trust my gut on when it’s better to forge ahead? I guess I’ll get my answer next week when we go to the pool and he yells or doesn’t.
