Energy Drain!

My three year old has a little problem with talking back.  For instance, I will say, "Go brush your teeth," and P will respond with, "No, YOU go brush your teeth!"  Cute at first, but problematic after a while.  I was told last week at class that we'll cover stuff to help this little ones tonight in our class, but in the meantime, I wanted to figure something out for this.

So one day he decided to talk back to me, and I replied, "Oh! Energy drain!  Energy drain!  When you talked back, you took all my energy!  I am so tired now, I don't think I can even cook dinner or anything!  How are you going to put that energy back?"  He didn't know, so I said, "Well, some kids help their moms over to the couch and let them rest there with the baby while they clean up the house, like by putting away all the shoes and coats and stuff."  He liked this idea, so he took my hand and led me over to the couch.  Then he got to work putting all the shoes away and other things that I pointed out to him.  All the while, I would say, "Oh, thank you P!  This is helping me, I can tell.  I am getting a little energy back already."  When he had finished, he asked me, "Do you have your energy back now?"  I told him I did, and I proceeded to make dinner.

I was floored that it worked!  I mean, I decided to try it, but I didn't honestly think it would work that well.  Awesome!  And very entertaining!  He was so cute, and the way he just believed me and agreed that I needed my energy back.  And he didn't talk back the rest of the night!  I'm going to keep trying this one.

On a side note, I can see that I'm going to have to tone down the theatrics for my 7 year old.  C kept coming up to me and whispering, "You're just faking, right?  You just want him to stop talking back.  You just want him to help you.  It's not real, right?" I assured C that I might have been a bit theatrical about it, but when kids don't obey, it really DOES take my energy.  I'll have to play it more cool with him.