Poopyhead! Stoopit! God, STOP the name-calling!
Submitted by Debra Legg on Saturday, 23 August 2008
No Comment
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will irritate the living crap out of my every time.
""You're a poopyhead!"" Little Guy shouts. I guess it could be worse.
""It's not nice to call your brother a 'poopyhead.' People feel sad when you do that.""
""You're stoopit, Mommy,"" Big Guy adds.
""Actually, I'm not.""
""But you just said you were stoopit.""
""No, I said I did something stupid. That's different."" And, no, I don't expect a 5-year-old to parse that. I'll have to strike the word from my vocabulary for the next 15 years.
I try not to overreact, and usually calm admonishment works.
Problem is, the more you ignore an annoying behavior with Big Guy, the more he escalates until it gets your attention. I learned that when several people recommended pretending not to hear his terrible twos tantrums. That led to screaming that dang near peeled the paint off the walls.
I also realize that at this point it's not about annoying me as it is trying to one-up each other. Yes, we've reached that stage of sibling rivalry.
You mean!
You ugly!
Mommy, he called me mean!
Mommy, he said I'm ugly!
Great. Now we have name-calling crossed with tattling.
It's just a phase, right?
Copyright 2008 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.
""You're a poopyhead!"" Little Guy shouts. I guess it could be worse.
""It's not nice to call your brother a 'poopyhead.' People feel sad when you do that.""
""You're stoopit, Mommy,"" Big Guy adds.
""Actually, I'm not.""
""But you just said you were stoopit.""
""No, I said I did something stupid. That's different."" And, no, I don't expect a 5-year-old to parse that. I'll have to strike the word from my vocabulary for the next 15 years.
I try not to overreact, and usually calm admonishment works.
Problem is, the more you ignore an annoying behavior with Big Guy, the more he escalates until it gets your attention. I learned that when several people recommended pretending not to hear his terrible twos tantrums. That led to screaming that dang near peeled the paint off the walls.
I also realize that at this point it's not about annoying me as it is trying to one-up each other. Yes, we've reached that stage of sibling rivalry.
You mean!
You ugly!
Mommy, he called me mean!
Mommy, he said I'm ugly!
Great. Now we have name-calling crossed with tattling.
It's just a phase, right?
Copyright 2008 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.
“Hi Debra,
I see we have a connection through the newspaper industry, I’m on the production side and have ink under my nails.
Thank you for adding me to Twitter, always thrilled to have real writers follow me.
Now to get back on topic. May I suggest a link I feel would fit here nicely? Dad Talk
Take a look at Dad Talk and see if you don’t agree with me.
Cheers,
Edward the Blogging Pressman
Los Angeles Times”
“Thanks for stopping in, Edward!
Isn’t Twitter a weird world? I picked up your account through someone in New York, and then it turns out we’re in the same state AND the same industry. For however long the industry lasts!
Thanks for the info on Dad Talk. It looks like an interesting blog. I’m adding it to my RSS reader.”
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