A couple of Saturdays ago, I took my eight-year-old daughter to Wal Mart. She'd been wanting to go, asking almost every day, because she wanted a particular "Littlest Pet Shop" toy.
She buys it. Then at checkout, she sees a roly-poly lantern she wants. She buys that too.
On the way out, I tell her, "You know you just spent all your money. You should keep some back, in case of an emergency, or something else you want to buy."
She gets real serious. "Daddy, I'm a kid." She waits a beat.
"I don't really have emergencies." Another beat.
"And if there was an emergency, you'd pay for it."
That was true enough. But she kept going on. "The only emergency I'll ever have is a toy I can't afford." "If I really needed something, you'd buy it for me." She said it several more ways, amounting to the same thing, until finally I said, "Stop, stop! I get it, okay?"
Then she said, "You lecture me, I lecture you!"
That's pretty sharp on her part. And she's got the essential haranguing aspect of the lecture down pat. Now you will remember what she said, because she beat it into your brain. And because you blogged about it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if having the kids write down their impressions of a lecture afterward would help them retain the information at all? Or if it would just help them hone their cruel nicknames for their parents?
I don't think kids learn anything at all from lectures. They learn only from example. That's part of why I reacted the way I did ... laughing at her rather than getting annoyed that she turned the tables on me.
ReplyDeleteWho has cruel nicknames for their parents?