"Mumma Darling"

Some of my sister-in-laws have a funny parenting tactic that they do. When their kids come running to them wining or crying or pouty, my sister-in-laws insist that their child calms down before the child talks to them...so far so good. I think this is what every parent out there strives to do....

But then comes the kind of funny part. I guess to prove that they are calm, they must say "mother darling" when addressing them. My one sister-in-law sometimes requires her kids to really draw it out and say something like "mother darling dearest sweetness honeybunch...etc."

I've never really thought much about this, and just kind of laughed at these cute little kids calling their mom "mother darling."

But then something unexpected happened. With absolutely no coaching or asking on my part, Maxwell started calling me "Mumma Darling" when ever he wanted to ask me something. (We've been spending A LOT of time with cousins lately.)

I at first giggled to myself that he would pick up this habit on his own and laughed even more when Hyrum started to follow Maxwell's example.

But he kept on doing it. Maybe I'm immature, but it started to bug me. I felt like he was trying to butter me up to get his way. And so finally I told him "Maxwell, when you say "mumma Darling" I feel like you are trying to manipulate me into doing whatever you want me to do." (I'm not sure if he even knows what manipulate means...)

So the next day, Maxwell comes up to me and says "Mumma Darling, I'm not trying to manipulate you, but I was wondering...can I have a cookie?"

AHHHH! hahahahahaha......oh well.