I know, right?
One approach is to just tell him how you feel without accusing him of anything.
“When you respond to me like that, it makes me feel bad.”
If responds to that with “I know”, then you may hit him.
Has he recently watched Empire Strikes Back? Maybe he’s just telling you he loves you.
My 5 year old daughter does that all the time. I think it is more that she doesn’t want to let on that she might not know, so she acts like she does. 10 year olds aren’t much different.
I just rebut with, no, yo don’t know or you wouldn’t have to have it explained to you. To which I get a pouty face. It’s the joy of parenthood.
My own nephew went through a phase like this, and it was obnoxious. In the right voice, it can sound extremely snotty and dismissive.
Part of this is natural, as he is at an age where he now development demands he builds some distance between himself and his elders. But being dismissive is a bad habit to get into, and learning to manage small talk and other less-than-engaging discussion is an important skill.
I would tell it to him straight and say “I know you probably don’t mean it that way, when you say that it makes me feel like you don’t like to talk to me, and that makes me feel bad. If you do that too often, it could make people avoid spending time with you or inviting you places. If you are not very interested in a conversation, can you think of a better way to handle it that makes the other person feel good rather than embarrassed?”
Reply “Did you know that just saying “I know” is a sentence fragment? Please respond to me in full sentences and provide what object you know”.
A lot has to do with the tone of voice as well. But if he does it without the snark, then maybe this is a chance to teach conversational skills. Clue him in that just saying “I know” is a hard stop conversation ender, and that it will not serve him well in communicating or building friendships.
What he really wants to go for if he’s trying to continue the conversation (while communicating his existing knowledge) is the “yes, and . . .” construction.
I recently went through this with Celtling, only her delivery was dripping contempt (copying an older child from school.) We had to talk through the above, but only after we got through the tone of voice lesson. I let her know that for the rest of the car ride, I was going to answer her in the same tone she had just used, and she should let me know when she wanted me to stop. Then I repeated all the same aswers (we only got to three of course!) in respectful tones, and we had a wonderful chat from there on.
By the time you’re done saying that to a typical 10 year old, their eyes would have rolled right out of their head.
I don’t know about the OPs case, but I think a lot of Doper’s nephews are not interested in talking to them. “I know” is either a meaningless phrase, or an indication that you’re talking to a wall. As far as being rude, who do you think you are? The Queen of England? You’re an aunt or uncle, get off your high horse. If you don’t find the kid cute then don’t come around. Go have kids of your own if you need someone to torture.
I would stop after the first sentence.
Either ignore it, because it’s trivial and not worth bad feelings over on either side.
Or you could try saying it in tandem with him. (No commentary, strictly humour!) The better you get at predicting and nailing it the funnier it will get.
You get to make your point and nobody gets bent.
Me? I’d just ignore it. He’s ten and this is like the very least annoying thing he could be doing, to my mind.
Here’s what I’d do: every time he responds with “I know”, immediately respond “No you don’t.” And go on with the conversation as though nothing has happened. Eventually he’ll get tired of hearing your response and start changing his.
Yep, best advice in this thread. Give the snark right back.
Or slap him. It may not stop the snark, but it does make you feel better*
*sort of just kidding
I gotta say, some of the responses in this thread are pretty enlightening. When the rudeness of kids is accepted as inevitable, kids will continue being rude. They only learn to be polite if they’re taught to be polite and expected to be polite.
I have no need to be the favorite uncle. I do have a need to have folks treat me respectfully. If an adult doesn’t treat me respectfully, I’m likely to minimize my contact with them, since there’s little chance I can teach an old dog new tricks. But if it’s a kid who’s being disrespectful, you bet I’ll set him straight–because maybe all the other adults around him are too fatalistic to bother educating him.
I like that. A good way to frame it is that you don’t like being disrespected. It’s your problem, therefore you are setting your own boundaries. Trying to educate him to be respectful to everyone sounds like a bad and inappropriate response.
Tell him to knock it off already. I have a 10-year-old, and he started doing this. I told him to knock it off. He knocked it off.
First, get an air horn…
My response was always
“Well, you say you know, but you act as though you don’t know.”
LOL! The voice of reason.
I’m with the others who think it is most likely a “ya, whatever” reply typical of kids that age.
If you can, start grooming him to not use the word “like” seventeen times in a sentence.
10 years old and already as badass as Han Solo
what’s the problem?