Little Miss Bossy Pants

Over Christmas, we noticed a disturbing habit creeping up in A's everyday interactions, but midst all the chaos of traveling and having so much family around, we didn't have the chance to really talk to her about it as much as we probably should have. This disturbing habit or bossing people around has now become part of her MO, and we're working overtime trying to figure out how to break her of it. The difficulty came, once again, over the holidays, when she would say something bossy to an adult, and everyone would crack up. Admittedly, it's pretty funny when a 2-year-old tells an uncle or grandparent to "Stop eating! Not prayed yet!" or yells at the bugs on the ceiling, "No, bugs! Do not play up there! Come down, bugs!" (see Dr. Suess' Go, Dogs, Go! for the source of that comment.)

However, once you get home to the day-to-day routine, it ceases to be cute when she tells her father, "No, do not sit there. My seat!" or her mother, "Put baby Ky-ky down in his seat, mommy. I hold you now." She has also started telling us, "Wait for me, mama! Do not go upstairs!" or my husband's favorite, "Do not do that, daddy!" We have told her over and over again to ask nicely, disciplined her for telling us what to do, and tried ignoring her when she tries to boss us around, and they all work for a couple hours... but unfortunately, this is a habit that's going to take quite a while to break, maybe even years.