Puh-Leeze

I'm sure that there is more than one person at fault, but whomever told me to teach my 2 year old to say "please" should be run out of town.  Seriously.  The word is an abomination.  Allow me to tell you why.

First, there is the over-use and clear manipulation that comes with the word.  For example, when he says "candy?" and I reply with "no," things are easy enough.  But when he follows up with "please?  please?" well that is another story.  Sure, you have to stick to your guns on such things.  The kid can't be running around 24/7, hopped up on sugar.  Trust me.  But then there's the flip-side.  You want the kid to be polite and have been preaching "please," since birth.  He now uses it.  Do you really want to discourage such a huge step into the grown-up world?  Do you reward the manipulation or do you move forward with the no exceptions method of parentology?  A semi-softball on the parenthood scale, and I don't personally think there's a horribly wrong answer.  But still a hurdle that will keep you awake at night.

But here's the killer with "please."  It's really hard when he actually means it.  Yesterday I had to attend a work meeting that would keep me from putting my son to bed.  I hate these.  I hate not being there when he goes to sleep.  And, of course, lately he has been a bit clingy, so we hadn't spent much time apart over the weekend.  So as I walked out the door, for one of the first times in his short history, he began to wail and cling.  Seeing his little face scrunched up in very real pain that I was causing sucked enough.  What is so horrible about your kid wanting to be with you.  It killed me to walk out the door.  But when I heard "mommy, please!  no, please!" my heart exploded into a million tiny pieces.  Please.  Ouch.  He was literally begging me to do something so simple as sit with him and read books and tuck him in.  And I couldn't do it.  Mommy, please.  He was fine, I was fine, the world was fine.  But I don't think I will ever get that little voice out of my head.

And so, dear friends, you see the issue.  For my two cents, I recommend raising a manner-less child who never uses the word "please," over having your heart ripped from your chest when little Timmy uses it in his arsenal of guilt trips that makes the Kardashian sisters look like Thomas the Train characters. 

Then again, it's possible that I need to buck up.  So forgive the new mommy.  Please.