Friday, October 8, 2010

Days of Defiance

Fatherhood Friday at Dad BlogsI've postponed this post. Originally it was simply "A Day of Defiance". Unfortunately, the details have spread, like some sort of black plague or bedbug hysteria, across the rest of the week. It seems that the wee man has learned the power of the tantrum. His parents (yup, I'm one of them), however, still haven't quite figured things out.

There is no worse sound that your little one wailing. You want to not only to stop the heart-rending sound, you want to address the root problem, you need to alleviate the concern. It's not enough to comfort - you need to FIX. The difficulty, I'm slowly grasping, is when there is nothing to fix. Fulfilling strange whims at ungodly hours doesn't necessarily equal fix.

To boil it down: is he really in pain/in need or does he just want something?

I fear the former are decreasing and the latter increasing.  On the plus, he's not genuinely hurt which is good, but on the downside it's getting hard to tell when he actually needs help.

What he wants is to watch videos. Specifically the video we shot at the zoo a couple of weeks ago. OK, so he loves the animals. But up screaming to see them and himself on the computer at 4am isn't really reasonable, not that I'm trying to reason with an 18-month old. Not only would it be better for him to get his much-needed rest, it would definitely be better for his parents. Those same parents that have to go to work later that morning and don't have the luxury of a three hour nap. Although the space under my desk is looking increasingly appealing.

If I can't nap, at least I can google "emotional blackmail". . .

No comments: