The Pain Of Parenting

We’ve been working with our toddler on how she should react to being startled, rather than just bursting into tears. We have also been working on saying sorry when she accidentally hurts someone. (She says it a lot to inanimate objects now, but not so much to people.) Her canine teeth are coming in, so she is frequently trying to chew on all sorts of things. Just now, rather than getting an approved toy to chew on, she started gnawing on my shoulder. This went predictably poorly.

Me: “You hurt Mama. What do you need to say?”

She thought for a moment.

Toddler: “I startled you, but I am okay.”

At least she got the “you” pronoun right, rather than just saying “Mama”? (That’s another thing we’ve been working on.)