When I found out I was pregnant with my son everyone told me how lucky I was.
"Oh, you are going to love it! Boys are so easy!"
"Boys are so much easier then girls!"
"If you were able to handle your daughter, you'll fly by with a boy!"
"Girls are so much more emotional then boys. This will be a breeze!"
...
Those bastages, lied. They Lied!!!
I gave birth to my son and without any exaggeration, he came out crying and did not stop for 9 months. Oh, how I wish I was making this up. For 9 months this kid cried from sun up to sunset. It didn't matter if I held him or put him in a swing or played music or sang or jumped up and down on one foot while drawing a pentagram on my floor in order to expel the demons...
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| sunrise, sunset |
But I digress...
Two years later, it turns out, I just have an emotionally charged boy. This is totally normal... kind of. Anyway, I really have no one to blame but myself. I was exactly the same way as a child, apparently.
Actually, I blame my mother. Since she was the one who cursed me when she continually said, "I hope you have a child just like you when you're older so you know what you are putting me through!"
Touche mom, touche.
Let me explain what an emotional child looks like on a daily basis:
When a normal child falls down and is not hurt, they jump up and continue playing so they don't miss the fun. VS When my son falls down and is not hurt, he will spend the next 20 minutes screaming bloody murder while I hold and rock him.
When a normal child doesn't like the televisions show, they ask to have it changed or gets distracted and finds something else to do. VS When my son doesn't like a television show he screams bloody murder until a) someone changes the channel or b) his sister starts screaming at him to shut up. In the case of option b) it then turns into a screaming/scratching fight to the death over the fact that Dora was on instead of Diego.
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| I hate you both |
When a normal child doesn't want to wear shoes you bring them with you and then put them on when you reach your destination. By this time, the normal child will have forgotten his preference for barefootedness and will quickly put on his shoes in order to get to where he wants to go. VS When my son doesn't wear shoes he screams bloody murder while getting into the car and while driving to your destination (even though you haven't actually put his shoes on yet) and then will lose his ever-loving mind when you get to your destination and proceed to wrestle his shoes onto his kicking feet.
...
I'm sure you are seeing a pattern here.
I know what you are thinking. "Good Lord! Your son is a spoiled uncontrollable brat!" and in this case you would be right. But I promise you, I did nothing to cause this!
I didn't coddle
I didn't give into his ever whim
I didn't hold him too much
I didn't withhold punishments
In fact, I did everything that ever baby book told me to do. (This is the same kid that when we tried to do the 'cry it out' method, he screamed for 4 and a half hours... That's not normal.) And I swear to the beautiful Lord on High, if one more person asks me if I tried 'time outs' I'm going to punch them in the neck.
The only time it ever started to get better was when I throw all that baby book advice out the window and instead did the opposite of everything they said. It couldn't get any worse and surprisingly... it actually got better.
I mean a lot better!
Instead of telling him to suck it up when he fell at the park, I coddled him. It was totally against my nature but everything else wasn't working. I held him and made a big deal about his fall and how upset he must be and I'm so sorry. Will you ever get better? And within 5 minutes he would push me away, jump down and continue playing.
WTH?
Don't get me wrong, I was happy that I didn't have to hold him for 20 minutes while he sobbed hysterically, but seriously? He just wants his ego stroked?!
I guess emotional boys aren't so hard.
They're just like men
... only smaller.
Antenella
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