“No”

About two weeks ago, I called Grandma (my Mom) on the phone and had a brief conversation with her:

Daddy — “When can we start telling Connor, ‘No’?”

Grandma (split second response) — “Never!”

Daddy — “But I read in a magazine that around 7 months you can start introducing the word and concept of ‘No’ to babies.”

Grandma — “I don’t ever remember telling you ‘No’ at that age.”

Daddy — “Ok, maybe we should wait a while.”

Grandma — “You should wait a long time.”

That was pretty much it for the conversation.  Let’s just say I went home feeling like I was just yelled at for doing something wrong when I was about 5 years old.  Why would I feel like that, my mom just told me she never said ‘No’ to me or yelled at me.

Well, I tried to say “No” a couple of times to Connor when he would approach our T.V. stand only for him to sit down, turn around, and just look at me.  He would soon thereafter turn back around and continue what he was doing.  Maybe it was to early to tell him ‘No’.  Maybe Grandma was right…

Well, Grandma watched Connor one evening as Mommy and Daddy were shooting a wedding.  The day after, I called Grandma to see how things went the night before.

Here is how part of the conversation went:

Grandma — “Have you tried to say ‘No’ to Connor yet?”

Daddy — “No, not really.”  (Lying to Grandma.)

Grandma — “Well, I did last night and he turned around and began to cry.”

Daddy — “What??!?!?!  You tell me I can’t say ‘No’ and then you try it.”  I started to laugh.

Grandma preceded to tell me how it broke her heart to see him cry after she said “No” to him.

I talked to a couple of “veteran Mom’s” at work and they explained to me that Grandma’s answer to the “No” question was from a Grandmother’s perspective.  Grandma’s don’t remember anything they did when raising their children and when it comes to grandchildren, the word “No” just does not exist.

Connor — don’t you worry, when you have kids of your own Mommy and Daddy will be sure to remove “No” from our vocabulary.  Until then, you better drop the crying reaction.  😉

Love,

Daddy