A difference of opinion

Sometimes when I tell Biscuit to do something (or more often when I tell him NOT to do something), what I say and what he hears aren't quite the same thing.

Sometimes it's all about how I ask the question. Like the other night when I tried to tell Biscuit not to throw anymore toys. I explained to him that when he throws his toys, he isn't taking good care of them. The bigger offense was that his airborne little car smacked the side of my laptop.

So I had explained to him why I didn't want him to throw toys. But he did it again. Then I told him if he did it one more time, he would have to go sit on the couch and not play with his toys for a while. Then he did it again.

"Go sit on the couch," I told him.

"Noooooo, Mom," he whined. "I won't throw my toys again. I promise. Okay, Mom? I won't do it again. Can I keep playing?"

"No," I said. "Go sit on the couch."

"But Mom," Biscuit whined.

"NO!" I said and raised my voice. "Go sit on the couch ... now!"

Life is so hard for a 3-year-old when he has to sit still ... with no toys ... and no TV ... and no books. Just sit perfectly still and think about what he's done!

After I felt like he had fulfilled his sentence, I asked him, "Do you think you can go play without throwing anymore toys?"

And Biscuit shook his head no.

What?!? Was he pushing my buttons? Was he being a smart aleck? Was he outright trying to tick me off?!?

Then I realized, he didn't understand my question. I asked the question in a way that he thought "no" was the appropriate answer. I should've asked, "Are you going to throw anymore toys?" Then he would've understood.

But sometimes, I think Biscuit just has his own ideas about how things can be done. Part of me wants to shake him into submission and part of me wants to applaud his creativity. I usually fall somewhere in the middle and find a compromise.

This picture was the latest example of this kind of "misunderstanding."

I said, "Biscuit, you've got cars all over the living room. You need to do something with all these cars."

So he did. He lined up all the cars in a neat and orderly pattern on the couch. And I couldn't say a word because I didn't say "put up the cars," I said "do something" with these cars. ... And he did. He made a nice display with them.

I have a feeling that about 12 years from now, I'm going to long for the days when a misunderstanding between Biscuit and me was as simple as whether he put his cars on the couch or in the toy box.