Some days I feel like I talk ALL.DAY. LONG. My mouth starts moving the minute the kids wake up and then it doesn’t stop until Princess Peach is fast asleep in bed. We talk about what we see, what we are doing, the pee and poo in the toilet, we read books, sing songs. The list goes on and on. Talking is so tiring.
There are times when something blurts out of Princess Peach’s mouth that will stop me dead in my tracks. OMG. She sounds JUST LIKE ME! For example when we were trying to teach Little Dude to crawl through the play tunnel, Princess Peach went to the opposite side. She picked up a ball to entice him and started saying “Come here, little boy”. “Oh, good you are coming to me”. “Come get the ball”. It was then that I realized she was mimicking me in the most positive and loving way.
Being a behavioural therapist I often wonder if my “mannerisms” and the super-reinforcing voice which can sometimes also be annoying is so ingrained in who I am now that it’s just “me”. I do a whole LOT of positive praise. I catch myself all the time. I’m sure when I’m in a store with my kids and praising them for everything they do, other people must think I’m insane! Sometimes I think I’m insane!
Yesterday, as I was driving Princess Peach to swim lessons a van was stopped in the middle of a road on the way to the highway. I waited for a minute and the van didn’t move. So I honked. The van still didn’t move. So I started motioning to the driver to move over a little so I could get by. Again. This concept just seemed to difficult for the driver. So I honked again and this time did larger motions with my arms. Finally, the bewildered driver backed up enough so I could get by. As I’m driving by I’m muttering to myself about how the lady can’t drive. Then a little voice pipes up in the backseat.
“She needs driving lessons”
“What?” I say
“She needs to go back and learn how to drive”
I chuckled and then realized that all those times that I mutter things to myself and may think I’m quiet enough……well I’m not. And my little girl in the backseat is listening to every little thing that I am saying! And she’s old enough and smart enough to take what I say and use it in the right context!
Although, I probably won’t stop talking about how many drivers on our roads need to go back to driving school I will think about what I say and how I say because my smarty pants girl is absorbing everything I say!
Have you had a situation where you kid has regurgitated something you said?
They hear it all! I hear a lot of my words coming out of Boo’s mouth, but thankfully none of the more colourful ones yet!
That made me burst out laughing out loud reading what she repeated!