Do you S-P-E-L-L O-U-T W-O-R-D-S in front of your kids to purposefully prevent them from understanding what you are talking about? I’m not talking about spelling out concepts that are inappropriate for the kids to overhear – that’s good parenting.
I’m talking about spelling out the word “C-O-O-K-I-E” because you’re afraid of your child’s reaction if he overhears you mention the word “cookie” – that’s parenting on egg-shells. Does that make you A-F-R-A-I-D of your child?
Personally, I feel that as long as I’m the one paying the mortgage, I ought to be able to speak freely about cookies, TV, toys and any other privilege that I govern and distribute based on my sound judgment and good behavior of my kids, not based on their implied threat of a tantrum.
How about in public places? Do you say, “Oh, I’m sorry, you can’t have that candy because the cashier said that it’s time for the candy to go to sleep back on the shelf”?! With all due respect to the cashiers of the world, I refuse to hand over my parenting authority to any cashier (or to anyone else for that matter). I think walking on egg-shells is for chickens.
