Oh MoN, your response is brilliant, but I have to say it brought to mind my youngest, as an 18 month old or so, firmly saying "Goodbye!" or "You go home now!" and turning her back on people she had previously been willing to communicate with....
My now 3.3 years old DS on a very consistent basis greeted his Early Intervention specialist with the words "Bye Bye! Go away!" every single week ever since he learned to say them.
Also, DS4.10, while being a very polite child overall tends to be very "honest" and respects people to act correctly so when an unknown man held the door for us (while I was pushing a stroller through with the younger one), I in the end said to him "thank you!" ... DS4.10 called after the poor man "Now you're supposed to say YOU'RE WELCOME!" I felt like burying my head into the sand! lol It DS's personality 100%. He understands the concept of politeness and rudeness but he is also very big into fairness, honesty and things making sense. So I could very well see him in a few years saying that something was a waste of time straight into the person's face. The problem is, people laugh when it comes from the mouth of a 4 year old, not so much when it's an older child.
