I am not a huge fan of saying “Because I said so.” Sure, it’s squeaked passed my lips on occasion, but I don’t feel like it is a particularly great answer.
Sometimes though, you have no choice. There are questions in which the answer is either too long and complicated to explain or you simply don’t have a remote clue how to answer it.
For example, why do I let my son have a granola bar with chocolate chips in it AFTER lunch, but never before? He asked once and I was stumped. The answer was BECAUSE.
What a stupid but truthful answer. “No honey, you can’t have a bowl of ice cream for a snack at 10 a.m. but you can have some this afternoon.” Because consuming sugar at 3pm is SO MUCH BETTER than 10am. Because consuming a brownie for breakfast is so drastically different than consuming a cinnamon roll or a donut.
As a parent we often find ourselves trying to explain things that just DON’T NEED an explanation. “I am your mother and I said so” should be enough. Of course little minds can’t wrap their heads around that. How can they when even I know it makes no sense? A rule at our house is different than a rule at someone else’s house.
My son didn’t have any soda until he was five years old. Now he gets Sprite on special occasions (maybe a few times a year). We have friends whose children can have soda whenever they go out to eat. Sometimes my children can have dessert; sometimes they can’t. There are television shows that we don’t allow but other families do.
Why? BECAUSE.
I try very hard to explain that every family is different and each family has their own set of guidelines and rules. No one raises their children the exact same. Life is tricky. Parenting is tricky. Sometimes there simply isn’t a logical answer.
Sometimes “because I said so” is the only phrase that works.
I LOVE saying “because I said so!” Like the holiday candy tax, it’s one of the few perks of being the mom. Though we do have “breakfast cake” the day after a birthday.
It’s crazy isn’t it, this parenting gig we signed up for. I love when they say they’re hungry after a 7am breakfast trying to dig into the Girl Scout cookies. NO WAY, man!
Sometimes it’s not worth the fight, so my kids HAVE had brownies for breakfast.
I try to avoid that phrase as I still remember how annoyed I was when my parents used it as a child. My favorite idea is someone who shared the “asked and answered” reply when they keep asking for the same crazy thing, like brownies for breakfast n
Yep, sometimes it really is the only reason. And, sometimes the answer to the brownie for breakfast question is yes!