Apparently elephants never forget, neither do kids…

Before your child turned three, a promise of ‘later,’ was probably all you needed to give to stop the incessant requests of “Can I have? Can I have? Can I have?”

With everything going on in your child’s life, it would rarely be the end of the world if you forgot; however, as they get older you will find that they will remember ‘later,’ and you will need to amend what you are saying to cover this eventuality.

I found that saying,

“I’m sure we can consider that, maybe later, when you’re older - let’s go and find out a bit more about it,”

provided breathing space and placed an element of responsibility onto my children.

They had to prove their interest by carrying out research, which meant that when they tried to blame me for forgetting, I could say that I had been waiting for them to ask for help.

When one of our chickens became clucky, the girls encouraged us to have more, by raising chicks from fertilised eggs. Knowing that they would be cute and fluffy, I foolishly said that I could take them to school, to show them to the class.

Three weeks later, and eight little additions to the family arrived.

The girls reminded me of my promise to take them into school, and two days later that’s what I did.

If you have ever smelt the resulting aroma from one large chicken, and eight little chicks in a box, in a confined space like a car, then like me, you will never make such a silly suggestion again.