How do you know when you are too often saying the same thing to your child over and over again? I'd say the clearest way to determine this is when your child starts doling out your words before you have a chance to say anything yourself. I have had several examples of this in the past two weeks alone - it goes a little something like this...
Ellie throws a stuffed animal across the room and immediately says "Ellie, no throwing!" Apparently she is punishing herself now, so discipline is a breeze (I kid. There is nothing breezy about it.)
Ellie stands up on the couch as she says "be careful". Ellie crawls under the dining room table and reminds herself "watch your head". She finishes playing with a toy and says "put it away". The good news in all of this is that is shows that she really is listening when we talk to her. This is truly exciting in itself. The bad news is that while she clearly hears what we are saying, she does the things we tell her not to do anyway. I am going to go with the theory that she knows the words and not the meaning, as opposed to knowing the meaning and being defiant. It is probably not the case, but it makes me feel better.
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