Back Talk--#NaBloPoMo

"TOY, please!" Our older son said to me one evening as he sat down to color.

I was cooked. Whipped. Stick a fork in me. Done.

"It's up in your room," I responded. He had buckets of toys up in that bedroom of his, but, yes, I knew to which one he was referring. Believe me, life was easier when a parent or two payed attention to these things.

"TOY, PLEASE!!" he said, becoming more anxious.

I understood. He almost always carried around a comfort toy with him, usually in his left hand, something special that made him feel safe. Lately, it was a portable driving center--except he'd long ago torn off the steering wheel, ignition and gear shift. It was a shell of a toy, really, but it represented something special to him, and he took it everywhere he went.

There at the table in the little room just off of our kitchen, he looked up with a start when he realized that he did not have his toy.

"I WANT TOY, PLEASE!" he said urgently.

"You get it," I told him in disgust. I was a mother at the end of her rope. The cow was milked my offspring. Step back and go about your day!

That's when he said it, clear as day, looking right at me with purpose, "You get it."

I almost laughed at the audacity. Unable to form his own words of complaint regarding the fact that I wouldn't get his toy, he simply turned my own words around on me. Well played, my friend. I decided to test him.

"YOU do," I instructed.

"You do," he said. It was echolalia with a purpose!

"No, YOU do," I insisted.

"You do," he said again.

Well, how about that?!

Don't anyone think that a low verbal child is incapable of back talk. If anything, he just has to be smarter about how he does it.

Eleven is proving to be a very interesting age.


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NaBloPoMo July Challenge. Having a stare down session with my preteen and blogging about it.