Independance, Negotiation, Abuse, Rules

"Ben do IT!" is the most frequent sentence around here followed my "Ben have it?"

***

If he wants to delay something (dinner, bath time, leaving for school) he says "Play with Ben, 2 minutes OK Mama, 2 minutes" And holds up 2 fingers. I stop and play every time. Just encouraging it I suppose but it is SO CUTE!

****

The ones that bring a tinge of anger though are when I have sternly (not yelled mind you ) told him to do something, or have taken his hand to lead him to time out and he says "No screaming Mommy No screaming" Or " No pushing Mommy No pushing BEN!" Like I am really hurting him.
He pulled out "No hit Ben Mommy NO HIT BEN" when we were in a restaurant the other day when I placed my hand over his to stop him from drawing on the table instead of the paper. *sigh*

****

We have a set of rules that get automatic time-outs/ discipline. Ben can rattle these off quite easily.

No Hitting, no kicking, no throwing things, no screaming

So tonight he was standing up in a box and it was pretty dangerous so I told him to stop. The next time he did it I called him to me and said "The rule is no standing on the box, if you stand on it again you will get a time out and no treat tonight. Now what is the rule Ben?"

Of course what is the answer?

"No Hitting, no kicking, no throwing things, no screaming"

Ok well yeah those are the rules, but ...oh sheesh....We both really are trying to understand each other... just sometimes we pass right by...so close and yet....