A kinder, gentler "Whatever"

Even though a simple "Whatever" serves as a comeback in a plethora of situations, it is becoming overused and is, let's admit, a tad bit rude.

When my daughter was around 2 or 3, she would say "Whatever you say, you don't say." She said this when she was told to do something she didn't want to do. This would include: " Stop beating the Christmas popcorn container like a drum," "Please don't swing the cat around by his ears," or "Yes, you have to wear underwear everyday." At the time we thought the phrase to be a sign of genius.....a simple yet polite way to say "WHATEVER!"

As time has passed, we have come to see it not only as a sign of our daughter's genius (more of that in a later post) but really and truly the perfect response in many situations. (plus it has the added benefit of making you look more intelligent than putting your fingers in your ears and loudly singing "La la la la la la")

Restaurant hostess: "I'm sorry but the only seating we have available is in the crying baby/chain smoking section."

You: "Whatever you say, you don't say."

Recently a friend told me a story. She was giving her 5 year old sister, Mikayla, an explanation about some subject the kindergartner wasn't interested in hearing. Mikayla flipped her pigtail over her shoulder and said "I don't need to learn that today."

I'm thinking of adding this to my repertoire of kinder, gentler responses but I'm not sure it will work without the pigtail flip.