Every time I get Hayden a banana, Rebecca claps her hands. “Meeee? Meeee?” she asks in her nasal little voice, jabbing a finger in her chest.
Rebecca doesn’t like bananas. (I started keeping a list of the foods she does like; there are about a dozen.) And yet every time I start peeling one, she wants it.
“You don’t like bananas,” I tell her.
“Meeee? Meeee?”
“You won’t like it.”
She grins and signs please. (She’s even recently begun trying to say it, usually “pee” or “tee.”)
I know she doesn’t like bananas. Usually, it’s only been a day or two since the last time we went through this routine, so it’s not like she suddenly developed a taste for them. But still, I worry—what if maybe she would like bananas? What if my saying “You don’t like these” is just reinforcing her bias, and she would really like them if I just let her give them a chance?
So just in case, I usually cut off the very tip or just offer it to her. She’ll put her lips on it—no teeth or tongue anywhere near the questionable fruit—and then vehemently shake her head. “‘Ohhh, ‘ohhhh.” (How she says “no.”)
And tomorrow, she’ll probably want it again. I’ll probably give it to her again. Just in case.
Of course, Rebecca may be a little too young to learn that if you keep doing what you’re doing, you keep getting what you’re getting. Then again, maybe I am, too. Sometimes it seems like although I don’t like the way some things are in my life, I don’t want to make the effort to change them. I have just enough energy to whine about them 😉 .
What crazy things do your kids ask for? What do you (or your kids) keep trying even though you know you don’t like it?
Photo by eko