Sonny Ma-Jiminy has been taught to use his manners from a young age. He just thinks that he's above using them.
Yesterday I heard him straining and reaching for something in the loungeroom. When I went in, I saw it was his special sheet. He couldn't quite reach it from his throne in the beanbag.
I wasn't going to stand for the grunting and groaning. He needed to use words, he needed to use an appropriate question, and he needed to use his manners. And my goodness, I was going to make it happen.
"Is there something you need?" I asked.
"Yes," Sonny replied.
"And what would that be?" I persisted.
"My sheet," he said hopefully.
"Is there something you'd like to ask me about your sheet?" I prompted.
"Give it to me?" Humph. Not good enough.
"Is there a magic word you'd like to use there?" I asked him.
"Abracadabra!" he shouted gleefully.
PS: My silly fault really, because he's never heard them referred to as "magic words" before - the term "manners" would have made more sense to him in that situation.
ReplyDeleteHe he he. There's no denying he's a very bright little boy. When my daughter was smaller, I had this crazy idea, wait for it, that if I treated her respectfully and with manners that she would learn by osmosis to reciprocate. Ha! New parents are so entertaining, even when they're us.
ReplyDeleteI also actually taught her by rote to give that answer to that question, because we have a lot of passive-aggressive types in the extended family and they annoyed me, which I think, technically, makes me a bad, bad parent.
I should have swallowed my tea before reading this. Priceless.
ReplyDeleteI love it. he was just doing what you said.
ReplyDeleteI love laughing at your expense. Kids are so literal. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOnce I reminded a hysterically excited Harpo about his manners, and he shrieked, "Please! Thankyou! Sorry! Excuse me!"
ReplyDeleteI fell about laughing and let him go, figuring he'd covered all his bases!
Sonny Ma-Jiminy, for no particular reason, sometimes uses the "singular" of manners words: "Plea" and "Thank."
ReplyDeleteNo idea why.