Sometimes Obedience is not Convenient

I spent an hour this afternoon being one of those backstage mamas while watching Aiden act in his very first commercial. The kids did the acting and pretended to talk but the final cut will have all of them voiced over by adults - a cute concept indeed.

While trying to get Aiden to look like he was speaking in front of the camera, the director said, "Aiden, just look at her and say, 'Blah, blah, blah, blah.'"

Aiden stared at me with a blank look so I repeated the instructions and told him to go ahead. Again he stood still doing nothing.

"I can't say those words," he said with a rather fearful expression on his face.

He had done so well up to this point that I couldn't figure out his hesitation at these instructions. I walked up to him and said, "Aiden, remember how we talked about doing what the director tells you to do? Just say it...please."

"But mama," he reminded me, "I can't say those words. You told us we're not allowed to say that."

Then it dawned on me that in the craziness of the constant teasing stage my kids are in, I have instructed all of them at some point to ignore one of the others. They then started to sarcastically respond to the teasing situations with, "Blah, blah, blah, I can't hear you." Of course, I then had to explain that this is not what I meant by ignoring, that it wasn't kind, AND they weren't allowed to say those words again.

Ah, obedience. I made up some lines for Aiden to say and he did just fine.