you are not in charge of me

David and I have been having an issue recently.

I say, You may have one cookie.
He says, I get two. My teacher says you're not in charge of me. I'm in charge of myself.

I say, It's bedtime.
He says, No it's not. I'm in charge of me, and I say I can stay up.

Etc.

So, we sat down together and wrote a letter to his teacher. His teacher seemed surprised that he was saying this and wanted to meet with us to clear things up. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell David when our meeting time was, so he freaked out. Dragging David across the playground as he cries, you're hurting me. . .not fun. He did listen to two seconds of his teacher, but about four hours later I figured out what must have happened.

David is just too darn smart.

His teacher probably said, you are in charge of yourself so keep your limbs from bumping into other people's limbs in circle time. David extrapolated to the semi-logical conclusion that if he is in charge of himself in one context, he is in charge of himself in all contexts. That he respected his teacher's authority on this point more than mine is a separate but just as annoying issue, but once I figured out the problem and framed it as a misunderstanding as opposed to a clash of authorities, he let it go. I hope.