It did help
The kids are both going through a phase where crying is the reaction to, well, most things that disappoint. Can’t get your shoe tied, cry. Can’t get the pudding open, cry. I usually respond to them with something like You could try to do it another way. But the crying doesn’t help.
Also, after bath, it’s a race between Junior and the Second to see who can get dressed first. And the loser usually cries about that.
The other night, the race was on. Junior was hurriedly getting dressed and I was helping The Second put his jammies on. As a joke, I grabbed Junior’s pajama top and tossed it up on the bed to buy The Second some time. And she started crying. And I, in my usual fashion, state that she could sit there and cry about it or go get her top. And I say to her, for the millionth time, that crying doesn’t help. She runs up to the bed, gets dressed, and comes over to proudly display that she still won, despite dad’s attempt at a setback. She then looks at me and says See, crying did help.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:03 am
My joke reaction to my son’s fake crying has always been ‘Crying won’t make you strong.’ When he was around 5 he started to come back with, I’m just a little boy, I don’t need to be strong.Of course his reaction to stop picking your nose or it will bleed was – but I have boogers up there I need to get.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
When you get home this evening have your better half put a fork in you.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
“Crying does help.”
Your future son-in-law will rue this day that you taught her that lesson.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Be careful, that’s a lesson many Democrats have also learned…..
June 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Well, that’d work.
Also saying “Shut yer pie-hole” works sometimes.
lol
June 10th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
You did say “she”… give up now Unc. Ours are 29 and 24. I don’t remember when I knew they had won, just that somewhere back there, they did. I’m pretty sure it was just after they learned that “crying doesn’t help”.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I usually handle the crying by criticizing the performance. I usually find the crying to be under powered and really encourage them to go into full blown fit. Otherwise they are just being sissies. Merciless ridicule of crying technique usually shuts them up… or pushes them over the edge which is at least more fun to watch.