What Am I Teaching My Kid?

Having a precocious 1 and 1/2 year old makes life very entertaining and...well...confusing at times. Noah has been having these bratty moments lately where he refuses to say good bye to his grandparents and gets all whiny and tells them "No" when they ask for a kiss good-bye. After one of these moments involving Bup and Guck, I decided to have a heart- to- heart with my son. I was so embarrassed and frankly I was sick of his rude and whiny behavior. 

Me: "Noah, that was very rude! When Bup and Guck ask you for a kiss good-bye, you do not say 'no.' You need to be nice and give Bup and Guck a kiss. You need to stop saying "no" to people when they want to say good-bye to you. Do you understand what Mama is saying?"

Noah: "Yes. Noah give Bup kiss."

I figured he understood because he repeated the same phrase a million times over the past couple of weeks. Then today, when he was leaving Bup and Guck's house, they asked for a good-bye kiss as usual and Noah looked at me and said, "Noah, no say no to peoples. Give Bup kiss." And he proceeded to lend his cheek for a kiss. Then I thought, Oh shoot! Did I really just teach my kid not to say NO to ALL people? What if some weirdo comes and asks him for a good-bye kiss? Oh crap! How do I undo this? 

I will need to think through my phrasing from now on. And I am going to have what is sure to be an interesting conversation with my 21 month old son on how it is okay to say NO to strangers but not to his family...this should be hilarious!!!!