My son’s at that stage where he knows that he wants something. He just doesn’t know how to ask for it. Lately, his word for when he wants something is “mama”, which makes me wonder if my wife is caving to his every demand when I’m not around.

It goes without saying that things get a little frantic - I’m pretty sure he’s breaking the record for the amount of times he’s said mama in a single minute. And they’ve all got this sense of impending doom - “If I don’t get what I want right this second I’m going to explode!”

Yesterday he spotted a group of adults playing soccer out the car window down an alleyway about 10 blocks away, and that meant a ten minute deluge of “ballballballballball” all the way home, until he could grab his own mini soccer ball from his pile of toys.

I’ve heard parents deal with repetitive whining lots of different ways. Some ignore it, some whine right back at their kids. I’ve been trying to make him ask for specifically what he wants. If I know what it is, I’ll help him after a few tries and then he can say the word. And I’ll usually give it to him, unless there’s a specific reason not to (like too much food).

But sometimes, he says “mama” over and over and I have no idea what he wants. So I say “Sorry, kid. I don’t know what you want,” and then I try to ignore the whining.

What do you do?