Walk Away, Dada!

Lately, Troy has been telling me, “Walk away, dada! Walk away!” He says it when I try to take something that he’s not ready to part with yet. He’s says it when I’m tickling him. He says it when I try to kiss him awake in the mornings, and he wants to sleep in. And he says it when I get too intimately close to his mother. In the last case, he will even wedge himself between us, put his back against me, wrap one arm around my wife, and push me away with the other arm.

We weren’t quite sure where he learned this, because we never said it to him. We didn’t know if it was another kid at the daycare or the teachers themselves, trying to teach conflict resolution.

Yesterday, we had a couple of families over for a play date, and one of the mothers asked me about this phrase and whether Troy was saying it to us. Apparently, her daughter was also saying it a lot at home. But instead of pushing her mom away, she would grab both sides of her face with her little hands to get her full attention. Then, satisfied that she’d be heard and understood, she’d tell her mom to walk away.

It’s interesting how little kids express it differently. Either way, we sort of tease Troy about it by using it back on him. If we get something first or get the upper hand in a situation, then we’ll tell him to “Walk away, Troy! Walk away!”