“Mommy, I’m hungry!”
Jan 14th, 2007 by Accidental Thinker
Lately, I’ve noticed my kids catching on to a new trick that my sister and I had once mastered ourselves. The art of convincing each other to approach Mommy with a question when the answer is sure to be “No.”
For now, this revolves around snack time, and I can spot the subterfuge a mile away. More than once recently, Noah has emerged alone from play with Maia, appearing before me in all his smiley adorableness to pronounce himself hungry or request a snack. I know my little schemers discussed it beforehand, because Noah always goes back and dutifully reports to Maia exactly what I said. “Mommy said not now, we just had lunch.”
Am I that fearsome that Maia is afraid to ask me herself? More likely, she believes the four-year-old stands a better chance of gaining access to the sought after yummy snack treats, since he is known to be irresistibly hard to deny. But once Noah begins to understand that his big sister has been goading him into doing her dirty work, I know he’ll start fighting back. I can hear it now:
“You ask her.”
“No, YOU ask her.”
“No way, it’s YOUR turn.”
Ah, the good old days of conspiring ever more clever ways to circumvent Mom’s expected “no.” What memories! I secretly enjoy watching my kids figure out the same tricks I used as a kid. Not that they work any better now than they did then, but it’s entertaining to see them try.
I think it’s a good thing I don’t have kids 😉 Yours sound so fun though.
I hope you had a great weekend!
I must say .. this brought back some memories of my own. I was the oldest of three girls. My youngest sister had the same charm as your little Noah. She was more often that not the one who got to question my parents.. especially my dad. 🙂
Kids can sure play their parents like a piano. The passing of time gives us the perspective of a high-tower. It’s fun to silently, knowingly watch the circle of life play out …. regardless of the age of the children. 😉
That’s cute. Kids are great!
Isn’t it funny! How we thought we were so clever back then, fooling our moms. Now we know we didn’t have her fooled for a second.
Since mine was an only she had to resort to an imaginary friend named Dickie to scheme with. He did all the bad stuff 🙂
I now use my grandkids to approach “my wife” for “MY OWN Snack” now… somethings just never change! ~ jb///
Smart kids! And they learn as they go. Mine are approaching puberty, and they are bottomless pits. They need to grow about a foot in the next couple of years, and their appetites are obeying the calendar. My nine-year-old is consuming 6 or 7 meals a day! She’s ordering off the adult menu, cleaning her plate, and bumming my food, too!