But we aren’t growing any grapes?

Man do my children know how to whine.

I wish I knew how to turn them off, or what causes it. I suspect they get it from me.. as horrid a thought as that is. I confess that I have been known to whine at them, so I am guessing they are just following my lead and whining back. Kind of a vicious cycle really because it totally does my head in and guess what.. I find myself whining at them yet again! (mental note to self, learn to stop whining!)

Izzy is the queen of whine at the moment.

This afternoon she was having a ‘moment’. She was asked if she’d like to go with Daddy to buy some cement. Yes she wanted to go with daddy… to buy a ’round torch’ (don’t ask what that is or why she wants one). Daddy explained that they were not going to the ’round torch’ shop as that was a long way and they only had time to go a short way.

The whine began.

” But I-e-I-e-I-e-I want to go-oooh-o-oooh-o to the round torch shop”

No amount of reasoning, distraction or just being straight with her helped. Tears set in along with the whine. I played ‘bad cop’ and gave her a plain choice since it appeared she’d lost the ability to make one for herself. I told her she could either go with Daddy and get cement or stay home with me and draw…. bad move!

The whining stepped up a notch. No longer were their words involved just this weird high pitched whine. It is sort of like the e-i-e-i-o bit out of Old Mac Donald’s farm but way more annoying. Just a long drawn out whinge of “oh-e-oh-e-oh-e-oh-e” then a change of pitch to more “i-e-i-e-i-e-i-e-i-e-i”

Now I taught preschool for a long time and I have met a lot of three year old whiners in my time.. but never one who manages such a musical whine, nor such an annoying one. And I swear.. this she did not get from me!