Since he learned to string words together, Miles has managed to cycle through quite a few catchphrases. Favorites have included:
- “I can do it all myself!”
- “It’s not very good!”
- “Hey, I gotta tell you somethin’!”
And now, Miles has another catchphrase to add to his repertoire: “I wanna listen! I wanna listen!“
As you might imagine, this particular exclamation accompanies the “Point of No Return” with regards to following directions and behaving as expected. Miles acts a fool, we establish expectations, Miles continues the undesired behavior, we count down from three and eventually hit zero. And, as he’s scooped up and whisked off to his bedroom for time out, out comes the catchphrase.
It is a long, long battle, helping Miles understand the consequences of his actions. Harder still, for us, is learning to tow the fine line between “punishable behavior” and “behavior that isn’t necessarily bad but is really, really annoying for us.”
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 