Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Don't "We'll see" me, sir.

A couple of months ago, Men's Health magazine published a list of things to remember while raising your kids. One of items was the phrase, "We'll see." The magazine reminds us that we hated hearing this from our parents, so we should stop saying it to our kids.

And you know what? They're absolutely right. "We'll see" is a such an easy answer for us to give our kids, but we never stop to think about what a bullshit response it is. Since reading that article, I've been catching myself telling Peanut, "We'll see," all the time.

"Daddy, can I take Snoopy to Miss Rikki's tomorrow?" "We'll see." C'mon Einstein, grow a pair and tell the child yes or no.

"Daddy, can we get Old MacDonald's for dinner tonight?" My inner voice says, I'm sorry, no. We just ate there two weeks ago, and that was too recent for my taste. Instead, I say, "I don't know. We'll see."

I'm not the kind of dad who babies his kids too much. I pretty much tell them how it is, and why, because I figure that I'm doing any favors by treating them like they can't handle what I have to say. So why, in response to these "throwaway" type questions, do I fall into the "We'll see" trap? Is it to avoid a meltdown when we're having a particularly rough morning? Is it because I'm not sure if this is something that's already been discussed with her mom? Is it because I know I can get away with that crap answer? Who knows, maybe it's a bit of all of those things. All I know, is that I feel guilty now whenever I catch myself or Jen saying this to Peanut.

Anybody else running into this? What do you do to avoid stalling your kids with a "We'll see"?

4 comments:

Rikki said...

Heck yes I do. I also do a lot of "not right now" and "maybe later".

:(

zztopdog said...

Good post, Greg!

lurker from OCH said...

In my experiences, "we'll see" was code for "if you behave, it is possible"...thus driving us to be REALLY GOOD for AT LEAST 30 mins...when we asked again...and again...and again. Eventually, we figured out that we weren't going to get what we wanted...so why behave at all!

Of course, when I say it..I am generally thinking "not a chance in hell, but I don't feel like a.)disappointing you right now or b.) talking about it anymore."

Life With Dogs said...

No kids here. I escape such difficulties. ;)