Two or three times this afternoon and evening Kate has asked my permission to do something. One of those occurred when we returned from dinner. As she got out of the car, she noticed her Yeti coffee cup on top of our garbage bin. She looked at me and said with the inflection of a question mark, “I’m going to take this inside.” I said, “That is fine.” Before getting in bed, she asked, “Can I take off my shoes?” The other occurred this afternoon when she asked me if she could work on her album after getting home from lunch. Again I told her that was fine.
I realize that telling her something is fine is itself reinforcing her behavior. I really don’t want to do that. On the other hand, I haven’t wanted to question her as to why she would ask me because she seems so sensitive about my asking her why she does things. She doesn’t know herself.
