Yackety Yack…

…“Don’t talk back”.  Come on.  I can’t be the only one who heard that while growing up.  Heck.  I was grounded most of age 8 – 16 for backtalk.  But if you ask my parents now, they’ll tell you I was a good kid J

So what age does backtalk really begin?  I feel like it’s happening earlier and earlier these days.  Kids are completely different from when I was little.  God.  I sounded old there.  Anyway…  I tend to run my house the way my house was run growing up.  My Dad was pretty strict.  We respected him and we followed rules.  Or at least I did (er… not Lindsay).  When you didn’t follow the rules, or get good grades, you were grounded.  Period. 

Lately, G has been responding to me in ways I feel are the beginning stages of ‘backtalk’.  Although, I’m not quite sure he fully realizes what he’s doing.  But if he does, I want to stop this behavior before it gets out of control.  He basically has an answer for everything.  And the answers are usually pretty funny.   I’m trying to teach him that sometimes it’s best to just stay quiet.  So is it backtalk?  Probably not.  I think he’s just at that age where he’s going to tell you like he sees it and sometimes, it’s just brutally honest.

Here are two examples of conversations that recently happened at home:

Gianni was in the way in the kitchen and when asked not to do something 3 times, he continued to not listen.  I asked yelled at him to leave the kitchen and play in his room.  A few moments later, I felt bad about yelling so I asked him to come talk to me…

Mom: … I don’t want to yell at you, but you need to listen the first time I ask you to do something.

Gianni: I know mommy!

Mom: You know what, Gianni?

Gianni: I know everything.

Mom: Oh… You know everything?  If you know everything, why don’t you go to work for me tomorrow?

Gianni: I don’t have a license.K

Going to work for me must have been lingering in his head because not long after, he continued with the following…

Gianni: Mommy, I don’t know how to do your work.

Mom: But you know everything.

Gianni: I know everything in my ROOM, Mommy…

Gianni was playing with a brand new bracelet of mine that I left in the living room. I noticed him playing with it, but these days, I pick and choose what I tell him not to touch.  He’s usually pretty interested in my stuff and as long as he’s not hurting it, I don’t care if he looks.  Well, this time I should have…

As my bracelet is ripped and beads fly in every direction, I quickly end my FaceTime chat with my BFF.  Gianni must have known I was angry because he didn’t flinch when I sent him to his room.  He said “sorry… sorry” over and over.  Although I knew it was an accident, I was still pretty bummed considering I’ve worn it a few times a week since buying it two weeks ago.  When I explained to him how upset I was because I really liked it, he responded with “You should have put it in your room”. 

And… so it begins.