Rhyming Manners

Did you know that using your manners requires that they rhyme?

Tonight, while decorating for Easter at my house, my kids were fighting over certain tasks as well as some cuddly items from the storage bins. They went 'round and 'round, and it took three adults to supervise the situation.

My Eldest picked up a brown bunny to take to bed with her. My Little One wanted it. She picked on her older sister until it escalated into a full-blow tantrum. After a series of squealing "MINE!"s and some tugging back and forth, I absconded the offending rabbit and kept it from both of them. My Husband then took the rabbit and put him in the daddyjail.

My Little One did not like this AT ALL.

She blubbered boogers out of her lil nose and her cheeks and eyes turned bright red. I tamed this wild banshee and nestled her close on my lap and firmly told her she had to quit crying or she'd have to go bed. She would wiggle just a little to test the boundaries and I'd threaten again. Then she'd start crying a whiny cry begging for the bunny.

Like any good parent, we went through the diatribe of "if you want something, ask for it nicely. Ask daddy 'please'..."

It was such a bellyache for her to say it! She writhed around on the sofa with her head buried into the cushion and inaudibly tried to say it. We'd make her pick up her head and enunciate the word, but she would just mumble it.

Me: "Say 'Please may I have the bunny?'"

My Little One: "No! I don't want to say 'please'."

Me: "Why not? It's the easier way to get what you want to use your manners. If you say 'please' and 'thank you' you're more likely to get what you want, baby."

My Little One: "But, but....but I can't. They don't rhyme, so that's why they don't work."

It was all the other four of us could do to keep from laughing. It was so cute and random. And she said it with such mighty authority for a petite three year old.

So we ended up teaching her this manners rhyme (which she didn't like...):

Say 'please' and 'thank you'
Or I'll spank you.

That did the trick! She ended up with the brown bunny in her bed.