Question
Dear Parent Gurus,
This is a question from a grandmother. I bought my children a copy of Parent Power but they have "lost" it so I was very happy to see your new website tonight when I sought advice. Recently my 2 1/2 year old grandson has been saying things like "I don't want to say hello to grandma or go to the park with grandma now." He doesn't always do it, only when already overwhelmed with attention from his other grandparents, or when he is "busy" doing something else. My daughter and her husband are all over him for this and make him say he is sorry. I believe there is a reason he has started doing this and I tend to ignore such statements. They always blow over when I ignore them, and we are good friends and go about our business and we go to the park five minutes later. As long as he is not being really rude or naughty, I think he is just asserting his new-found ability to say no. The more they get on him for it, the more he does it. Tonight the whole family was at dinner, including both sets of grandparents. He has 6 very strong minded (if I might add, some dysfunctional) adults around and gets very wound up. I can understand that having to sit next to grandma when he just wanted to drink his cocoa, was too much. I do not take offense when he says he doesn't want to sit next to me and I hate having to accept a little apology from him that I didn't ask for. sorry this is probably too long...there is no word count so I can keep track...thank you very much.
