Today, our two-year old brat told me to go away, on two separate occasions.

First up was lunch time. Helping Eric get seated in his booster seat, strapping him in, I was apparently guilty of helping him too much. He said “want Frank walk”.

Second, at bed time. Having some fun with his nightly “hush little baby” serenade request, I messed with the lyrics. He said “Frank, want good night”, meaning that he wanted me to say good night and just go already. Juimiin then sang the tune properly, and was not dismissed.

He is starting to put together complex, sometimes grammatically correct, sentences now, which is cool But he’s using his newfound verbal know-how to tell me to get lost. How to balance pride and humiliation?