Annie was helping me fold clothes today, and after handing me her pile of surprisingly well folded dishrags, I smiled at her and said, "Good job. Thank you, Annie." She responded, "Thank, no . . . you are welcome." And just beamed at me.
She's done it. I have succeeded as a Mother. For the first time, completely unprompted, she said "You're welcome." My child has now successfully mastered the triumvirate of polite phrases expected of one raised to fully acclimate in society.
Today we were leaving a restaurant where our family had just gone to lunch (Greg had a very cool 'free day' from work, so we went to Mimi's Cafe), and Annie called out from the backseat about a block into our drive home, "Thanks, you guys!" Melted my heart.
And she's always asking, "Please?" Usually though, it's just because she thinks she has a greater chance of success acquiring something like candy if she says 'please'. She also uses the "let's share" technique, bringing me something she's pretty convinced I wouldn't normally go for and asking if we could share it. I'm a sucker for sharing.
Plus, like I mentioned, she helps fold laundry. And vacuum. And sweep floors (that one isn't actually all that helpful). My favorite, because of its potential, is that she helps me unload and load the dishwasher. I'm thinking this whole motherhood thing is really starting to pay off. Once she's able to unload the dishes totally on her own, I'll be completely convinced.
5 comments:
Ah, the pinnacle of motherhood. Once you no longer have to unload the dishwasher. Why is that such an onerous chore for us? Weird. Congratulations on raising a polite and helpful girl, though. I hope it lasts and that you will get hours and hours of housework out of her over the next 16 years or so.
That is AWESOME. I am so excited for Connor to be able to wash the dishes. And mow the lawn.
I am also excited to actually have a lawn.
Sheesh! That girl is a freak of nature! ;-) How old is she again?!
You know, as soon as she CAN load the dishwasher, she no longer will WANT to!
My Mom loves to tell me about how I was the world's neatest, cleanest little toddler in the entire world . . . than I grew out of it. She'll probably follow in my footsteps!
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