No means no
Sometimes I laugh at the things I have to say to my children. I have been keeping a mental tally of the NOs I've issued over the past year or so since they started really testing things. It all started one winter in Minneapolis when I actually had to say, "no licking the car." I cracked up about that one for days, I mean, seriously -- who licks the outside of a car? It can't taste good, all that dirt and grime. Alas, that was just the beginning. Since then, I've repeated the no licking the car line many times. And the list has grown to include: no sitting on your sister's head (sister, surprisingly, was not objecting), no sitting on the dinner table, no licking mommy, ketchup is not a finger food ... I'm sure there are more, and if you're a parent you may be able to add some of your own. Wish I'd written them all down. Most recently I said, "We don't put shoes in our mouth, and we don't lick the toilet." What about your kids? Got ...