ISO a comeback

"MINE!"

Yep, it's started already. Somewhere, somehow, Monkey learned to say the word "mine." And I can guarantee you it was not from me or my husband!

So I casually raised the question at day care this week.... "So, I'm just curious... have the older kids been saying 'mine' a lot lately? Because we noticed Monkey saying it at home, and aren't sure where he picked it up..."

GUILTY!

On the downside, not only is this apparently the word du jour with the one-year-old set, but their teachers taught it to them! In their defense, their thought was to give the kids a word to use when another child took a toy from them. Apparently they didn't consider that the children would naturally start declaring everything to be theirs. Plan backfired.

On the one hand, I can see their thinking. But on the other hand, there's this little voice in the back of my head (actually, two voices, sounding remarkably like Seth Myers and Amy Poehler), aaying "Really? You didn't think that teaching toddlers to say 'mine' could backfire on you?? Really???" But, alas, what's done is done.

What I really want to know now is this: What, exactly, is the succinct, fail-proof comeback that a parent uses to respond to a child who declares that an object is "mine," while maintaining a death-grip on said object and refusing to turn it over (let's say, just for a crazy example, a toothbrush that said child has been sucking on for over five minutes without actually "brushing" his teeth)? Acknowledging that the object is, in fact, theirs doesn't seem to do the trick. And denying it would seem to be (a) lying, in many cases, and (b) likely to lead to a lovely debate along the lines of "is not," "is too," etc., etc.

So please, if any of you have come up with a snappy comeback to respond to this adamant declaration, the comment section is below - please use it!!