To respect the "Please" or not?

Well, no question, really, it has to be respected.

But, of late, it is making my life as a demonstrative mom a bit difficult...

Take for example, the other day, I was cuddling Ana for a bit sitting on the sofa, and she spotted a toy she wanted to go get, but, I held her in my tight hug about 5 seconds longer than she could tolerate when she strongly said, "Amma, LET GO, Please"!

I had to.

We were playing this game where I tickle Ana out of her current bad mood. Sort of like "Slowly, slowly, very slowly, Creeps the garden snail" thing, I remembered that in Tamil my mom used to sort of "walk" her index and middle finger up my leg repeating, "Nandu varuthu..." or something - the idea being, no matter how cross you are, you can't help feeling ticklish and laughing when the fingers walk up your leg, torso, and right to your tickle spots...

So, I was walking my fingers along Ana's baby chubby leg when in a no-nonsense tone she said, "Amma, leeb my leg alone."

I naturally ignored it and kept going.

She tried it again: "LEEB MY LEG ALONE, AMMA", and I kept going (tut-tut, indeed) and then, all of a sudden she pulls the trump card and says, in an even tone:"Amma, leeb my leg alone, PLEASE?"

I had to.

Her favorite words when she is mad at me or D is to say, "Go Way!" (Go Away), hoping that she can get rid of us just like that. We usually ignore it, and if she is receptive, we try to tell her that we don't talk that way to each other. Mostly, she uses it at bedtime like so:

The usual ritual is to pick out about 7-8 books from her bookshelf, pile them on the floor, and as and when we read a book, we leave the book with Ana, in a separate stack. The idea being, once the parent-stack is empty, Ana needs to turn in.

The sneaky little monkey that she is, when I have finished my round and am ready to tuck her in, she starts a bit of a fuss and asks for Appa. If Appa is around, he usually stops by to kiss her good night, and when she has him there, she politely commands: "Amma, Go Way! Appa, read the book, please..."

Now, D knows I have read the full round, so, he tries to distract her and continue the ritual of tucking her in. But, a very insistent "Amma, Go Way Please"! sends me out of the room leaving D to deal with reading the books again another round!

Little girls! Just too darned precious for their own good?!