Saving Face

As she enters into a negotiating phase it becomes important to give her a face-saving way of backing down.

So, for instance, she was allowed to leave a book open on a chair tonight in return for agreeing to put away (or to have us put away) the rest of her drawing materials.

In the event that she attempts to negotiate a non-negotiable, when, e.g. it becomes clear that we are going to the grocery store and not the playground, she deploys one of the following face-saving utterances:

• "I was just joking" (as in: "I wasn't crying, I just joking")
• "I know!" or "Daddy, DaddyDaddy—I know!"
• "I gotta tell you something. I gotta tell! you! something!" ("Yes, what is it?" "Um,... I, I already knowed that!")