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It’s fun dealing with a young child who is still learning grammar.  Here are some recent accounts of conversations that we had with our young children.

Before the funeral – Me: “Okay, you need to be good during the funeral.”
After the funeral – Child: “Did I be good?”

How can you not smile at the child who says that?

A different situation, this time:

Me:  “You need to get dressed; it’s almost time to go.”
Child: “No, I willn’t”

Part of me was ready to discipline him because he said that with a defiant and angry attitude.  But more of me was ready to laugh at the grammar or using “willn’t” instead of “won’t”.  But I couldn’t let him see me laughing.  One reason was that I didn’t want him to think his attitude was okay, and the other one was that if he saw my laughing at him while he was angry, that would make him even more angry.  So that was one of those situations where I had to stifle my amusement until later and deal with the immediate problem.  So I went over to him and said, “It’s won’t, not willn’t.”

Here is an exchange that happened while we were driving somewhere.  As I was driving, not taking notes, I don’t have the exact words that were used, but these quotes portray the spirit of the event.

Me: “That’s not food.  Do not put anything in your mouth except food.”
Child: “And drink!”
Me: “Yes, and drink”
Child: “And silverware”
Me: “Yes, and silverware too”
Child: “And medicine”
Me: “Okay, and medicine”

I think it ended there, but that reinforced the concept that family rules should be more general than specific.

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