NO!

I always thought that I would be a great parent. I was a good teacher, and I felt like parenting was similar to teaching, so naturally this was something I would be good at. I was that person who would say things like," My child will never do that!" "I will never give my child that!" "My child won't ever speak to me like that!" I also watched my sisters parent their kids and thought, 'How hard can that be?' A few years ago my sister was explaining to me that they were not telling their daughter no when she did something she shouldn't do. They were using other words or phrases to deter her from doing things she shouldn't be doing or getting into things. They did this so she would not start using the word no. I remembered thinking 'What?' And it all seemed so silly to me at the time. Fast forward to the present when I am now a parent to a very opinionated and BUSY 17 month old. Well, I must say, my sister was right. I have the child who makes me eat my words all the time! His favorite word is No! And I'm not talking about a sweet, little baby voice saying no, I'm talking about a very emphatic, 'I'm imitating mommy' with my big voice kind of no! "Ryan, eat your peas," "NO!" Ryan, do you want a waffle for breakfast?" "NO!" "Ryan, bring that to mommy." "No, no, no!" I have also become the parent who will bribe my child so he will stop throwing a fit (I like to think of it as redirecting his attention), and the one who chases my child down the street because he is running away from me. Yep, that's me! Maybe this whole parenting thing is much harder than I thought. It has been a very humbling experience!