Bad boy
Our 18-month-old is driving his family crazy. Here is a partial list of his favorite hobbies:
1. Pulling. Pulling hard. I have seen him pull cats off the couch by the fur. I have seen him lift cats off the ground by the tail. He was delighted to discover that when he yanks on dog hair, it comes out! As if we didn't have enough dog hair floating around the house without that. And oh, how he loves to hear those squeals of pain and anger when he pulls his sister's hair.
2. Climbing. Dining chairs, couch, stepstool, piano bench, coffee table. Often climbing is a prelude to pulling. Rarely can he get down by himself. Frequently he bumps his head.
3. Thrashing, kicking, and wailing during diaper changes. It's so bad that we switched from cloth to disposables so as not to have to do it so often. With disposables you can get away with twice a day if they don't poop.
4. Blankies. Now, you wouldn't think blankies would be a bad thing. In fact, we encouraged all our kids to love their blankies. But Daniel has three of them. Two are fleece, one is his crib quilt. They are big and bulky. When I'm holding him and the blankies not only can I not see my feet, but my center of gravity is further thrown off because he has to lean back to accommodate their bulk. And he wants to bring them everywhere. Even in the high chair. (I know it could be a lot worse in the transitional object department. I have a niece who's attached to a pocket-sized teddy bear. They can never find it.)
I just hate it when people say, "Aw, what a cutie. Don't you just love that age?" Get real. Sure, we're biologically programmed to think toddlers are cute so we won't kill them!
1. Pulling. Pulling hard. I have seen him pull cats off the couch by the fur. I have seen him lift cats off the ground by the tail. He was delighted to discover that when he yanks on dog hair, it comes out! As if we didn't have enough dog hair floating around the house without that. And oh, how he loves to hear those squeals of pain and anger when he pulls his sister's hair.
2. Climbing. Dining chairs, couch, stepstool, piano bench, coffee table. Often climbing is a prelude to pulling. Rarely can he get down by himself. Frequently he bumps his head.
3. Thrashing, kicking, and wailing during diaper changes. It's so bad that we switched from cloth to disposables so as not to have to do it so often. With disposables you can get away with twice a day if they don't poop.
4. Blankies. Now, you wouldn't think blankies would be a bad thing. In fact, we encouraged all our kids to love their blankies. But Daniel has three of them. Two are fleece, one is his crib quilt. They are big and bulky. When I'm holding him and the blankies not only can I not see my feet, but my center of gravity is further thrown off because he has to lean back to accommodate their bulk. And he wants to bring them everywhere. Even in the high chair. (I know it could be a lot worse in the transitional object department. I have a niece who's attached to a pocket-sized teddy bear. They can never find it.)
I just hate it when people say, "Aw, what a cutie. Don't you just love that age?" Get real. Sure, we're biologically programmed to think toddlers are cute so we won't kill them!
posted by Julie on
1/02/2005
4 Comments:
Been there! Age will catch up with him and his toddler ways. :)
posted by
mrsd on 6:22 PM
Sounds awful. I, too, cringe whenever my parents or others say "Enjoy every minute of it!" As if you can.
You might like this study: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2004/Dec04/r120204c
It asked people to rate their feelings on an hourly basis, rather than say "what's best and worst about your life?" Surprise, surprise, they found the times when people were caring for their children to pretty negatively ranked. Abstractly, people think "oh, it's just great having kids." But they're thinking about the fleeting good times. The study proved that the minute to minute experience of parenting is a totally different story.
posted by
Unknown on 1:12 PM
Negative times, yes. But worth the aggravation. :)
posted by
mrsd on 1:53 PM
I often wonder how it is that the years fly by so quickly but individual days sometimes last fore-e-e-e-e-ver. Those study results don't surprise me a bit.
On the other hand, there's nothing I'd rather be doing right now than raising my kids. Except blogging, perhaps.
posted by
Julie on 6:31 AM
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