The Beautiful Word, NO!

Well, the time has come where I as a parent have come to despise a word that most, if not all, parents do during their children's early years of life. Yes, you guessed it; that magical word is no. But do I really despise the simple word no? My answer: no. It's the combination of your 2 year old daughter looking at you straight in the eyes with the most defiant tone ever and saying, "NO!" to your very simple request or command. And to throw icing on the cake, this event occurs in a very public place where complete strangers are given the free opportunity to make a judgement call regarding your parenting. As you have easily come to conclude, this topic of discussion is very familiar and recent in my life. In fact, out of curiosity, I even looked up the word to see what Mr. Webster defined "no" as. Here we go:

Main Entry: 1 no
Pronunciation: \ˈnō\
Function: adverb
1 a chiefly Scottish : not b —used as a function word to express the negative of an alternative choice or possibility
2 : in no respect or degree —used in comparisons
3 : not so —used to express negation, dissent, denial, or refusal
4 —used with a following adjective to imply a meaning expressed by the opposite positive statement
5 —used as a function word to emphasize a following negative or to introduce a more emphatic, explicit, or comprehensive statement
6 —used as an interjection to express surprise, doubt, or incredulity
7 —used in combination with a verb to form a compound adjective
8 : in negation

Who knew there were 8 different meanings of the word no! I think the definition of no that I have become most familiar with these days most closely aligns with def. #3. As we were driving to MOPS today, I asked Zoe to stop kicking the back of the seat, and in her ever "sweet" tone she delivered that magical word right back to me. It was then when I really started pondering the irony of this word in regards to parenting. When our children are young, most of the time we don't want them to use the word because they are usually answers to our requests, demands, commands, etc. However, when our children get older, we regularly instill in them to say no to numerous things. Just say no to drugs, alcohol, sex, peer pressure, etc. So now I have this conflicting word in my life- or maybe I just need to think about things that are really important on my 15 minute drives to and from places. I guess the English major is just finding an escape in my motherhood career.