From my latest project (and a shameless plug for) my blog.
A bolt out of the blue. A shock from a toddler.
A few weeks ago, Beta-chan suddenly went through a phase where no one but Daddy would do. As may be typical and certainly imaginable, she strongly objected to a hand-off from Daddy to her aunt, but then she started to cry even if Mommy took over. The biggest shock was when she refused to walk with Mommy.
Naturally, the woman who carried her for nine-months and has breast fed for more than a year more was less than trilled by this development. Daddy was secretly smug, while saying appropriately sympathetic responses.
Today was daughter pay-back day. Daddy was not the person she wanted. Her back arched and her cries increased as she attempted in vain to veto the change. Her fuss didn’t last too long, and Daddy and daughter shared a laugh. But it was interesting to be on the other side of the whims of a toddler.
Which is why you can’t base your worth as a parent on the minute-to-minute reactions of a baby; for those who live by the whims, die by the whims.
When I was a kid, I think I was three, I don’t remember, I had to go to the hospital. My mother tells me that the whole time, I was in the hospital and after I got out for a few weeks I absolutely refused to have anything to do with her or my father or brother. I only would talk to my sister.
I don’t know why I was like this, as I don’t remember being in the hospital at all. But remember even the stubbornist kid can be won over by ice cream
I remember when my little girl was two, an incident where I came in to read her books at bedtime. She hid in the closet, sobbing, “No Mommy books! Daddy! Daddy books!”
Yah, it hurts. But what goes around, comes around. Now I am the favored parent and I’m begging Daddy to read books occasionally in the evening so I can have a few minutes of down time.
We just had a new baby fifteen days ago. Since then, I’ve had my toddler tell me to go away, get out, leave me alone and that he doesn’t like me. If he knew the word “hate,” I probably would have heard that, too. It absolutely sucks. He used to be all about mommy. Now he wants absolutely nothing to do with me.
Don’t worry about your son, from what friends tell, he’ll adjust and it’s good that he’s able to express his unhappiness at no longer being the center of the universe.