Thursday 7 February 2013

The Adventures of Geek Dad: My Patience, Your Judgement

Good Thursday everyone!

That's right, the end is in sight.

You know, my wife's boss made a joke to her the other day which will set the tone of today's Geek Dad post:

Wife: So when did your daughter enter the "Terrible Twos"?

Boss: It started just after she turned one, after that she became a teenager!

Yup, it seems at just prior to 15 months old, my Moo has started acting like a terrible two year old, and I must say - it is an extremely unusual experience.

In her case, her "stropps" and "tantrums" seem to stem from wanting to go somewhere, play with something or do something and we stop her (for safety etc, like not playing with electricity or climbing to the highest point of the room and falling off, that sort of thing).

She goes from being the sweetest, most adorable little darling into a shouty, tear filled toddler - who I must say, depending on your patience, can be really funny.

What does not help however is the reactions of strangers.

So last weekend we tried letting her walk with us when we did our weekly shopping, she wanted to walk up the shop's escalator (which in all fairness is probably quite a strange thing to a 15 month old), but for her own safety, and our time I had to stop her.

On cue she flips onto her bum, out go the arms, out come the tears and she starts crying.

Now I've seen children do this all the time, my reaction is to either chuckle at how pathetic the kids sound or feel sorry for the parents.

What happened to us however was the other shoppers all seemed to stop and stare, their inappropriate judgement clear.

Now this didn't bother me, I'm used to people judging or disapproving of what I do, and frankly there are so many parents out there who I would brand as 'bad', I'm not going to give two hoots if they think bad of I raise my daughter.

But this did bother my wife, it vastly upset her, largely because they were staring at her, not me or the screaming kid, but my wife.

Were they questioning why she wasn't looking after my Moo? Why she was clearly inadequate because a 'man' was playing with his daughter and trying to find a compromise between stopping her crying, and giving in to what she (dangerously) wants?

Honestly, I don't know why they appeared to pass judgement on her and not me, but I look forward to going for another walk with the moo, and if others want to pass judgement on her and me? Well damn their eyes!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

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