Anybody else rate this as their least favorite sentence out of their children's mouths? It drives me insane! Did I say that a lot when I was a kid? If so, Mom, I'm deeply sorry. This is Cakes's response to EVERY instruction I give her. Recently I've started explaining that I'll know she knows when I see it done. If she knows that her shoes don't belong in the middle of the floor, then I won't see them there. If she knows that she's supposed to brush the hair on the TOP of her head then I would be able to tell she had done so and wouldn't keep repeating my instructions.
M - Cakes, you need to put away that shirt you just took off, it's clean
C - I know.
M - I don't want to hear, "I know," I just want to see it done.
C - I know.
M - The evidence that you know is that I see it done. If it was done I wouldn't be telling you and you would have showed me that you know instead of just telling me. (said not nearly as calmy as it looks all neatly typed!)
I told her I'm going to start giving her an extra job every time she says "I know." And there will be plenty of extra jobs available if we're going to sell our house.
On the other hand, this reminds me that I continue to fail at my intention to "try again" whenever one of us yells or says something we shouldn't say or speaks in an otherwise unpleasant way. I always mean to say, "let's try that again" and give myself and/or the kids a chance to start the conversation over but in the heat of the moment I always forget. I need to post reminders all over my house. But that won't help it sell either.
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