Saturday, July 5, 2008

Foreign Language

This week has been a particularly strong test of my patience with the kiddos. As they get older, I'm finding that the tone of my voice must have some kind of hypnotic effect on them. Either that, or they're going deaf.

I have found myself having to repeat requests multiple times. And if you've ever heard Bill Cosby's tale of woe when asking his children to do something, well, you know what I'm dealing with here. In the rare instance that a request is actually acknowledged the first time I ask, I'm so taken aback that I usually forget what I was even talking about. Most of the time, I get the "I'm ignoring you" stare and on occasion, I get the ever popular "please stop talking to me" glare.

Little A has found a new way this week to really push my buttons. Her vocabulary has really picked up over the last few months and every few days, she picks a new phrase to dazzle us with. The phrase of choice for the last week has been "What you say?" It doesn't matter what I ask or how many times I say it, I always get the same response from her. "What you say?" It was cute the first 5 times she said it. Now...not so much.

I saw an infomercial earlier for a computer program called Rosetta Stone. This really expensive program is supposed to be able to teach you ANY language lickety split. I wonder if they have an edition for American Toddler? Apparently I'm just not speaking their language.

4 comments:

Angela said...

Oh no! You poor thing. I guess you'll have to fire back with the tried and true "You heard me!" - my mom used that a lot, because I always asked her to repeat herself. It was a stalling tactic, LOL!

Unknown said...

Thank goodness it isn't just me & mine! ARRGH... I feel the exact same this week!

Michelle said...

That sounds so familiar. We actually had Mister Man's hearing checked thinking that might be the problem.

But I've found a little bit of a solution because I'm a Mean Mommy (tm). I ask something once. If they don't respond, I let them know that I've asked once and that they need to respond (action or answer a question) or choose to lose a treasured item (baby doll or train or book or whatever). Somehow, that seems to cut through the fog for the wee ones... although I'll admit that it did take a few removals of treasures before it sunk in ;)

Let me know if you find the toddler Rosetta Stone, as I have a feeling that might bring about fewer tears!

Claremont First Ward said...

I would like that edition, too!

 

Blog Designed by: NW Designs