Most people have seen the slogan in an office or on a bumper sticker: Exactly what part of the word "no" don't you understand?
Probably just like you, Barbara and I often get bombarded by our half-dozen banditos trying to persuade us to say yes when we've already said no. If they don't get their way the first time, they'll come back and try a second, third and even fourth pass. If they can't get us with their "superior logic" they'll just try to pester us until we're worn down emotionally.
What is there about the word "no" that they don't understand? Barbara and I have come up with a couple of answers.
First, it's a child's nature to press issues, ignore, defy, rebel, challenge, resist or just flat out disobey. Children will test you, and it's your responsibility to discipline him or her. Even the Minnesota Crime Commission, a secular group focusing on the reason for rising crime rates, published a startling description of a child that included these words: "Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered....All children...are born delinquents."
A second reason is that we as parents have trained them that way. It has been said that our kids are better students of us than we are of them. They can spot flaws and manipulate our weaknesses to their advantage. If they discover they can wear you down with their requests, they'll do it.
Perhaps what we need to do is to prayerfully pause and become a student of ourselves, asking whether we are strong parents or easily manipulated tools in this universal conspiracy of kids.
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