The difference in how you treat your first born and your second born is truly like night and day.
Girl was fragile in my eyes. The slightest scrape or cut was treated as though it were a severed limb, and she was never allowed to wander more than 5 feet from my side for fear she'd be abducted or attacked by wild dogs.
Now it is 7 years later, and we have The Boy.
The Boy is not fragile. The Boy seems rather indestructible in fact...
My son recently turned 1 year old and on that very day hit his " terrible 2's". Unfortunately for us he was an early walker, and is now capable of scrambling away from us at amazing rates of speed. If he does not want to be caught - he won't be.
Had my daughter ever climbed onto the furniture - we surely would have stopped her before she started climbing up the curtains. Now Mrs. Chronically Insane and I simply yell at each other to go get The Boy down from the curtains again.
In years past, whenever food hit the floor it was considered untouchable. Now, 80% of my son's diet is comprised of food that has touched the floor.
Girl was given a rocking horse when she was 2. She loved the rocking horse and would sit and rock on it while she watched television.
The Boy has the same rocking horse, only rather than rocking while watching television, he stands on the seat, teetering back and forth while yelling at us with his hands in the air.
Instead of scrambling to his side when this happens- I scramble to get the camera...
I don't ever remember my daughter even attempting to eat a crayon... The other 20% of The Boy's diet is comprised of crayons.
I don't know exactly what makes the difference in how they both behave and how we treat them... It could be the fact that he is a boy, or that I've been a parent for 7 years. Whatever it is, things are certainly different.
Maybe it is the fact that my reflexes just aren't as sharp as they once were...
6 years ago I would have definitely stopped him before he'd put his hands in that pile of dog shit.
Girl was fragile in my eyes. The slightest scrape or cut was treated as though it were a severed limb, and she was never allowed to wander more than 5 feet from my side for fear she'd be abducted or attacked by wild dogs.
Now it is 7 years later, and we have The Boy.
The Boy is not fragile. The Boy seems rather indestructible in fact...
My son recently turned 1 year old and on that very day hit his " terrible 2's". Unfortunately for us he was an early walker, and is now capable of scrambling away from us at amazing rates of speed. If he does not want to be caught - he won't be.
Had my daughter ever climbed onto the furniture - we surely would have stopped her before she started climbing up the curtains. Now Mrs. Chronically Insane and I simply yell at each other to go get The Boy down from the curtains again.
In years past, whenever food hit the floor it was considered untouchable. Now, 80% of my son's diet is comprised of food that has touched the floor.
Girl was given a rocking horse when she was 2. She loved the rocking horse and would sit and rock on it while she watched television.
The Boy has the same rocking horse, only rather than rocking while watching television, he stands on the seat, teetering back and forth while yelling at us with his hands in the air.
Instead of scrambling to his side when this happens- I scramble to get the camera...
I don't ever remember my daughter even attempting to eat a crayon... The other 20% of The Boy's diet is comprised of crayons.
I don't know exactly what makes the difference in how they both behave and how we treat them... It could be the fact that he is a boy, or that I've been a parent for 7 years. Whatever it is, things are certainly different.
Maybe it is the fact that my reflexes just aren't as sharp as they once were...
6 years ago I would have definitely stopped him before he'd put his hands in that pile of dog shit.
2 comments:
Funny to hear what I'm looking forward to, as my boy (the first) is 8 months and crusing the room like a pro these days. Of course, every time he falls, it's a federal case, so I'm sure we have a few weeks before he attempts solo steps.
But I have to say that I think the indestructible thing has much more to do with gender. I don't know what or why, but I noticed from early on that mine would pound his fists into his legs and yell. His movements have always been very, well, BOYish. Very "rough" if you will.
Certainly there's something to the experienced parent relaxing a bit, but I've gone from not allowing him to be left on my bed alone surrounded by piles of pillows before he could even roll over to putting him down on the floor to crawl and play while I go in the other room and do whatever it is I need to do, then just checking in whenever I don't hear something for awhile (surely an indication he's gotten into something terribly interesting that he's not supposed to have).
My youngest "baby" will be 30 in a month. Thank you for the best laugh I've had all day. What memories!
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