I have started several posts chronicling some of Violet's sassier moments, because I know (hope/pray) that one day I will find this all very funny. Today is actually a relatively good day for us (KNOCK WOOD), so I might as well try to get this all down while I have a sufficiently full reserve of patience.
When I first started keeping track of the sass, it was still at a time when it was a little bit funny. Back then, it was hard not to laugh when she would talk back, particularly because she was so small. Well, it's been going on for a while now, and she's getting bigger every day.
Unsurprisingly, most of the backtalk comes as a response to a promised disciplinary action. Here are some doozies:
Violet: If you put me in timeout, I will make a mess.
She has also threatened to break my computer, hide my shoes, go into my closet and throw my clothes around.
Me: Violet, it's time to go to bed.
V: No, I don't want to.
M: Violet, if you don't get into bed, I'm going to have to cancel your ballet class tomorrow.
V: If you cancel ballet class, I will cancel your life.
M: If you don't behave, we will have to go home.
V: If we go home, I will cut you in half!
In response to telling her she had to brush her teeth or she wouldn't get to use her chapstick:
V: I will take away your chapstick and hide mine!
Or she'll just generally yell, "Never do that!" "You meanie face!" or "I am gonna have it for sure!" if we tell her she can't have something she wants.
The mouth isn't just reserved for her parents. She has quite a lot to say to Jack. One time she was playing with a slinky of his in the car, and she accidentally broke it. A squabble broke out as a result with Violet threatening, "I will break it for real!"
Jack: You already broke it.
V: I will break it bigger!
When she is feeling particularly defiant, she will yell nonsense at me ("Sha-sha baba!" seems to be a particular favorite) in response to a directive she finds objectionable. I am trying to get her to answer, "Yes, Mom" instead of "Why?" (or "sha-sha baba!") when I tell her to do something, but sometimes she will scream or whine it at me, which is definitely not the response I want.
I think I might have a (tiny) bit more patience for the sass if she were just more quiet in general. But Violet Never. Stops. Talking. We recently got back from an amazing trip to Peru. We traveled with a couple other families, and the lone dad in the group has nicknamed our girl "Violet Whatwhyno," because he said those are her three favorite words. They were talking imaginary super powers one day, and he said hers would be that she could question you to death. During one of the times we were all hanging out at the hotel, she saw him laying on the bed. She asked him, "Is that your bed?"
Him: What do you think?
V: Is that your bed?
H: I'm laying on it. Do you think it's my bed?
V: Is that your bed?
He said it went on like that for a little bit before he finally gave in.
H: Yes, Violet, this is my bed.
Pause.
V: Why?
On a less exasperating note, she does have some pet phrases that don't have much to do with defiance. Sometimes she'll come up with things she wants to do, and she'll ask me, "Good idea?" She says, "Do you even know that?" quite a bit, usually when she's talking about her favorite shows or making up games and assigning tasks or attributes to her toys. One of her friends told her once, "Every time you say, 'Do you even know that?' I never know it." The opposite is true for me. I always know it. Another favorite question is, "Is that silly?" whenever she does or says something even remotely funny.
All the chatting and sass can definitely be challenging, but I try to take to heart this quote I heard about parenting once,
“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”
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