That is the most commonly heard phrase in our home these days, spoken by Miss Independent herself. Every possible regular task around the house now MUST be done by Skyler: Letting Bruno in and outside, feeding Bruno, putting her stocking cap on to go out in the cold, unbuttoning her coat, putting socks on, changing a diaper, blowing her nose, throwing some trash away, putting on chapstick…and the list goes on.
The Bruno chores are great – that gets annoying letting him in and out, so we’re all about her help there. But the rest are tasks that for the most part, she is not yet very skilled or efficient. So “letting” her do these is typically more trouble than it’s worth, messy, and/or, causes us to be tardy if it is part of the morning routine.
When we “let her do it,” blowing her nose means a snot-smeared face and hands, maybe boogers in her hair. Putting on her own socks is a ten minute drama that usually ends with me forcefully restraining her with one hand while trying to put a tiny sock on her kicking foot with the other hand; usually both of us are yelling and crying by the end of it. Also note that putting on socks is definitely a two-handed task, even for an adult!
Her obsession with doing everything isn’t just when she’s involved in the situation. She can be in her bedroom playing, and overhear one of us ask Bruno “Need to go outside?” and while making our way to the back door, she’ll come running and screaming from her room “Lemme do it! Lemme do it! Lemme DOOOOO IT!!!!!!!” and if she’s too late she breaks down in the most disappointed heartbroken tantrum, which is promptly responded with “Go to your room if you’re going to cry like that.”
When we go in to “make up” with her and try to salvage the damaged relationship, it’s usually not too hard to distract her by asking if she wants to read a book or play with a certain toy. However, we don’t even think about stepping foot toward the bookshelf or toy box to pick out the item, otherwise…”LEMME DO IT!!!!”