I SWEAR if I have to say it one more time I will be forced to tattoo it on my forehead. I fear Ben is already developing the vocabulary of a teenager. The worst example of this is when he simply grunts in an effort to get me to repeat what I have just said.

He has taken to making an inane noise with a screwed up face in place of what I would like to hear, that being a properly constructed sentence requesting I repeat my previous statement as his little ears did not quite catch the gist of it.

A please or thank you thrown in there wouldn’t go amiss either. But alas no. Instead I find myself barking “Pardon!” at him roughly ten times a day. It sounds like I am constantly excusing myself but it is the price I am currently paying to put a stop to the little grunt monkey.

Again, what irks me here is that he knows full well what he should be saying, he simply chooses not to. It is a classic example of him repeating behaviour that appears to send mum slightly red in the face and all high pitched.

I have taken to simply staring at him in a mute-like fashion until he sources the correct phraseology and vocalises words rather than a noise. On some occasions he simply answers the question I was posing proving he didn’t ever really need it repeating – he just likes the sound of his own grunt and his mother’s subsequent reaction.

I know this all sounds very petty and in the great scheme of things is really of very little importance but I do hate bad manners and I can feel other relatives looking at me when I constantly pull him up on his.

They have that “But he is only three...” look in their eyes, but my view is that if he thinks this is the right way to talk to people now, God only knows what array of noises he will be treating us to come puberty. At least I will have enjoyed some years of a well-mannered child before he inevitably falls into the realm of monotone noises.. The worst example of this is when he simply grunts in an effort to get me to repeat what I have just said.

He has taken to making an inane noise with a screwed up face in place of what I would like to hear, that being a properly constructed sentence requesting I repeat my previous statement as his little ears did not quite catch the gist of it.

A please or thank you thrown in there wouldn’t go amiss either. But alas no. Instead I find myself barking “Pardon!” at him roughly ten times a day. It sounds like I am constantly excusing myself but it is the price I am currently paying to put a stop to the little grunt monkey.

Again, what irks me here is that he knows full well what he should be saying, he simply chooses not to. It is a classic example of him repeating behaviour that appears to send mum slightly red in the face and all high pitched.

I have taken to simply staring at him in a mute-like fashion until he sources the correct phraseology and vocalises words rather than a noise. On some occasions he simply answers the question I was posing proving he didn’t ever really need it repeating – he just likes the sound of his own grunt and his mother’s subsequent reaction.

I know this all sounds very petty and in the great scheme of things is really of very little importance but I do hate bad manners and I can feel other relatives looking at me when I constantly pull him up on his.

They have that “But he is only three...” look in their eyes, but my view is that if he thinks this is the right way to talk to people now, God only knows what array of noises he will be treating us to come puberty. At least I will have enjoyed some years of a well-mannered child before he inevitably falls into the realm of monotone noises.