Gray area

Most of the things Biscuit has learned so far in his 3 1/2 years of life have been pretty black and white, but as he's getting older (and smarter), we're struggling with trying to teach him about gray area.

Biscuit knows that red light means stop, yellow light (despite what his father says) means slow down, and green light means go. But I did the unthinkable yesterday. I turned right on red, and Biscuit realized it.

"MOM! MOM!" Biscuit yelled from the back seat. "YOU CAN'T GO! THE LIGHT IS RED!!" 

He was very concerned about the fact that the light was red, but I went anyway.

"If you're turning right, and no cars are coming, you can turn even when the light is red," I tried to explain to him.

"So those other cars can turn, too?" Biscuit asked. 

The other cars were in the left lane, so of course they couldn't turn until the light turned green. 

Gray area.

He also doesn't quite get stop signs. He can spell "stop." And he knows that when you see one, you stop. But he asked me recently, "Mom, you stop at stop signs. Will it turn green when it's time to go?"

So I explained that when it's a stop sign, you stop and look to see if any cars are coming. If you see cars coming, you wait. If no cars are coming, you can go.

"Like at the red light when you turned?" Biscuit asked.

Ugh! This stuff is hard to explain!

Biscuit loves music. He often requests specific songs, mainly when we're in the car. If we happen to have the CD with us, no problem. But he can't seem to get that the radio won't just play whatever song you want.

Another example: Biscuit got two new pairs of pajamas the other day, and of course he wanted to wear a pair of them that very night. I explained to him that the jammies had to be washed before he could wear them. I bet he asked five times if we could wash his new jammies so he could wear them.

"Dude!" I said. "We can't run the washing machine just for one pair of jammies. We have to wait until there are lots of dirty clothes to go in there."

Biscuit needs an explanation. He needs us to answer the "why" question for him. One of the many things I love about Biscuit is that if you explain to him why things are the way they are, he usually says, "okay," then he's ready to move on.

But he has moments. Sometimes when you've answered every question he can throw at you, and he's still not satisfied with your answer, that's when the hard parenting comes in. If you think it's hard trying to explain difficult concepts to him, try keeping your composure and patience when your explanation just isn't enough. That's when I have to pull out the "because I'm the mama and I said so" answer. That answer trumps anything he can throw at me.

There are some things I heard growing up that I swore I'd never repeat. But now that I have a 3 1/2-year-old in my house, all bets are off.