What Was I Thinking?

When my kids were little, someone passed on this observation: "The first 2 years of a child's life we try to get them to walk and talk, and then the next 16 years we try to get them to sit down and shut up." Though I thought this was funny, I took offense to this and have encouraged my kids to walk and talk their way through life. Just because someone says it's so, doesn't make it true. Find out for yourself if it's true and if you disagree, be ready to back up your reasoning. Stand up for what you believe to be true and don't give up. (I think this observation has to do in part with my decision to homeschool my kids for the last 7 years. If anyone is going to tell my kids to sit down and shut up, it's going to be me.) So then why should I be surprised when my kids debate my every instruction? Why should I be surprised when my 18 year old daughter disagrees with every little message on her vanilla chai tea bags? I've created clever little individual thinkers that aren't afraid to stand up for what they think is right, kids that can argue the white off of rice . . . and to think I'm the one who encouraged this . . . again, I must ask myself the question, "What was I thinking?????"