It’s simple: pack..move…unpack..duck. May 12, 2007
I feel like I’m getting my groove back as I begin writing again for the first time in a bit.
We moved our home and company headquarters last week. We knew we were moving for a few weeks, but I was so wrapped up in the kids and the company that I really just over-simplified the process in my head. I kept thinking..it will be easy…pack..move…unpack.
In a way it was: I went so far as to dump the contents of my junk drawer in the kitchen into a box. I then labeled the box “Junk Drawer”. There was no need to pretend it would be any more organized in the new house. I would just find a new junk drawer and fill it back up again.
The new house is pretty cool but needs some paint. Again I thought, “No big deal: the kids can help with that.” As C and I started painting the playroom on day 1, I was surprised to hear A say “what the heck are you letting him do???!!!”
I looked over and there was C making very artistic brush strokes, Pollack style, all over the wall and hardwood floors. Ahh well,…it was the playroom afterall.
Trying to keep some semblance of normalcy for the kids, I drove T down to school in Middletown and took C to a local coffee shop there.
A friend and I were enjoying our morning drinks at the coffee shop when I heard a very hard thud.
Looking down I saw C and his buddy A (also 2) throwing hard trains around. Another look to my right and I noticed two business men, labtops open, looking completely horrified at our toddlers’ behavior. I was about to try to do something when my friend E looked at the men and said, “you were like this once.” before making sure the boys stopped throwing things.
C and A are toddler boys who act like toddler boys. They throw things. They wrestle. They break things. Going into this whole parenting adventure I thought I would raise my kids pretty gender neutral. Truly though, they just seem to do “boy” things. So it’s not really my job to keep them from being boys. It’s my job to keep them from breaking things.
That’s why we have the “only throw soft-toys rule”. It started when T was a toddler and said “Throw lamp?” I do try to instill some nurturing traits in the boys, but I’m usually met with resistance.
Case in point, I took them to PotteryBarnKids the other day. I suggested that they take care of the baby dolls in the strollers. They both made complete eye contact with me and said “ok Mommy”. I was convinced they were about to ‘feed the baby, hold the baby…etc.
Instead…they said “let’s do “WHEELIES!!!” To the absolute horror of a little girl standing nearby, T and C began running back and forth with the doll strollers in wheelie mode, only to crash intentionally into a wall. This action led to the ejection of the baby dolls from the strollers. As I heard T and C squeal…”watch out BABY…WHOAAAAA.” over and over as the soft doll would fly into the air…I just thought , “at least they’re open to playing with dolls”.