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No! No!" "Yes! Yes!"

If I could pin down the exact year when things reversed, then possibly I'd be able to find a cure for it. I'm talking about that time when you stop telling your kids not to do things and start nagging them to do them. You see, I never remember saying to my toddler,"Yes, you may." He thought the world was up for grabs and that's just what he did - grabbed.

Then some nutcase invented a new era called 'child-proofing' to protect children against the adult world. The only thing that did was make blundering idiots out of all of us. We now need our children more than ever, because they're the only ones who can get the lids off these bottles and other sundry 'preventative merchandise'. Now I'm not against it, but what about us?! Have you ever seen what an innocent (I use that term loosely.) toddler can do to a house in 1.35 minutes? I'll give you a hint: Instead of using a broom, I found it was worth the money to rent a bulldozer for cleanup.
I have a friend whose house burnt down several years ago. As if that wasn't traumatic enough for her to handle, the insurance company begins an arson investigation. (As if her goal in life was to watch her goals in life go up in a cloud of smoke!) Digging through the debris, they eventually come upon the cause - a cigarette lighter. But this was not your average cigarette lighter, this one was child-proof! And so arson is thrown out the window and the insurance company paid the claim. 'Child-proof' had exonerated every adult, for how could they have set the house on fire when not one adult can even get one to spark? The end conclusion: It had to have been the dog or the baby.
What was I saying? Oh, yes! I am not sure exactly when I stopped saying 'no' and replaced it with begging, but one day I heard myself desperately trying to get my son to understand that - "Yes!" He could take out the garbage. "Yes!" He could clean his room, and "Yes! The washer is your friend - it will not bite you!" YES! YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!
He has completed 10 years of schooling. I do not think I am asking too much if I expect his vocabulary to be wide large enough to include the comprehension of three-letter words!
So if there is anyone out there that knows the exact point in time when 'Yes, you can do it!' replaced 'No, don't do that!', please let me know. I am curious to find out if anyone out there has attempted to reverse this 'phenomenon'. And I assure you, it will be someone else. 'Cause I'm not having another baby to find out!

Learn more about this author, Linda Barnett.
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