I paid close attention to this item in the “Social Studies” section of today’s Globe and Mail:

GETTING TO ‘NO’

“My three-year-old daughter hates being told ‘No,’ and ‘Don’t,’ and she’s also one of those kids who immediately does exactly what you ask her not to do,” Gretchen Rubin writes for Slate, an online magazine. So, Ms. Rubin adds, she has devised strategies, including:

” ‘It’s for safety.’ For some reason, my daughter wisely accepts safety as an absolute directive, so I invoke it whenever possible.”

” ‘That’s just for decoration.’ We can walk into a store crammed with treats or gimcracks, and when she asks if she can get something, I just say sadly, ‘They’re just for decoration; they’re not for sale.’ ”

” ‘The doctor says …’ ”

” ‘I know you know.’ My daughter loves to show that she’s a big girl. So I often say things like ‘I know you know this, but other children don’t know that you shouldn’t tap on the glass of a fish tank. They don’t know that the noise bothers the fish. Fortunately for the fish, you already know that.’ ”

” ‘The sign says …’ Like most children who can’t yet read, my daughter is extremely impressed by the power of the written word. … [A] sign can say anything that I want it to say.”