Tobey: Responsibility

I let Tobey play in the utensil drawer while I was doing dishes (I also saw him stick a plastic spoon in his mouth and put it back!). When he was done, he left but all 6 Chinese soup spoons were on the floor.

I ask him to pick them up. He continues playing while thinking about my request and replies, "Mommy pick up?" Nice try, buddy! So I still calmly say that he needs to pick it up since he played with them. "Mommy pick up?" I even threw in a nice big boy word: "No, Tobey pick up. It's Tobey's responsibility."

It's probably not the big word that did it but I'd like to think so. He came over and one by one put them back in the drawer. No fuss, no frustration, no battle, no rolled eyeballs (usually mine). Although, he did put them back rather messy so I ended up putting them back too. No problem. He learned responsibility.