Another Parental Fallacy
When Drake was a baby, he cried a lot. I was very frustrated at baby books, articles and other parents who said that after a few weeks, I would learn what his cries meant. I never did get that kind of spidey-sense. I took my best guess, and spent a lot of time longing for him to talk, so that he could TELL me what he was crying about. Now that he’s been verbal for over a year, I see how misguided I was. When Drake is upset, he has a hard time using words. Further, he doesn’t yet seem to understand cause and effect, so “why are you crying?” doesn’t compute. Finally, when he does answer, it doesn’t always make sense. Does “bug in the air conditioner” mean he saw one, he dreamed one, or that he’s afraid it might happen? And might his extreme response be due to illness, even if he says he feels OK?
I wish I could go back in time and tell my former self I was wasting my time wishing. My almost-three-year-old boy is an unreliable narrator.
June 4th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Mine is gearing up for teenhood. I ask her why she’s sad, she says “Because.” I then try to ask about a billion different ways in order to get her to tell me WHY it is she is sad, each time I get “Because.”
June 6th, 2006 at 9:51 am
I’m laughing. This morning I told my husband our two year old boy is an unreliable narrator and we both just laughed and laughed. He’s just starting to really talk with sentences and replies, but often just answers “Yep” or “Ok” to almost anything we ask. When asked who he plays with at school, he names kids who haven’t been enrolled there in over a month . . .
June 8th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
“Bug in the air conditioner†is just another way Drake is illustrating how darn perfect he is. DUH.
June 15th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
A few weeks ago Drake said he wanted to go to the zoo and eat grapes with his friend S. It was something he’d done a year ago.