If At First They Don’t Succeed

The most annoying trait the kids have adopted of late is they ask questions. Not different questions, but the same question. Over and over and over. Typically, it’s a request of some sort. “Can I have candy?” isn’t uncommon. “What can I have with lunch?” “Can I stay up later?” “Can we have waffles?”

I wish I could say it’s entirely unprovoked, but I cannot. Mainly, the sin the Wife and I commit is to not immediately respond. And by immediately, I mean with a microsecond of the question having been thought by the kids.

Alright, I exaggerate. But not by much.

The thing about most of these questions is the kids already know the answer. “No, you can’t have candy.” “Have an apple or strawberries.” “No, bedtime is bedtime.” “Maybe.”

But we don’t get a chance to offer an answer. Instead, they ask again because some internal timer goes off, meaning we didn’t hear them. The Wife and I get snippy at times with this and will intentionally try to ignore them. That when it devolves into a scene from a sitcom with the kid standing next the to their parent roboticly repeating themselves until they get a response.

My usual, exasperated response is to say “If you ask me that again, you’ll go to bed early.” Of course, being problem solvers they simply route around that obstacle and ask for the same information in a slightly different way. It’s like Chinese water torture.

Unfortunately, the situation is in something of a stalemate. They don’t seem to be taking the hint to think before they ask, and we aren’t interested in responding any quicker to their queries. The proverbial unstoppable force and immovable object.

I guess we’re hoping they’ll grow out of it. Soon.

Real soon.