Thursday stuff

Tavish had his first ever time out today.

And it worked.  For a few minutes anyway.  Or so said my wife when she called me at work to tell me about it Thursday morning.  I do believe it will be the first of many.

The wee boy - nearly two now - is at least four times the hellion his older brother ever was.  The striking similarities between me and my own younger brother grow increasingly eerie.  I've mentioned to several people that when Tavish goes down for his nap in the afternoon it's like the energy level in the house gets dialled down by about eighty percent.  Next to him, Declan is placidly raising himself.

The ramping up of the emotional outbursts, both in terms of frequency and severity, leave Amy and me yearning for the spring when we can unleash both spawn on the whole of the outdoors and just sit back, bandage scrapes, and hose them off before we let them back in the house.

The relationship my brother and I had growing up was one of him antagonising me and me responding with a thumping of some sort.  (From my perspective, anyway.)  And then I would catch way more shit for being the thumper, feeling like a frikkin' martyr under the tongue lashings from mean ol' Mom.  Thoughts like that are now at the front of my mind when our parental backs are turned and all I know is that Tavish is crying and Declan is looking sulky and guilty (yet a little smugly pleased with himself, too, the scamp).

Altogether far TOO much like my brother and I were growing up...

Comments

[Dave]

Sounds a lot like my brother and I growing up Simon!!

[Mark]

Sounds like we did it the other way 'round -- we had the handful kid the first time. To be honest, that's one reason we haven't had a second yet. We frankly weren't sure we could handle another as strong-willed as the first. I don't like the term "strong-willed" because it implies a weakness in kids who aren't high disciplinary maintenance. You know what I mean, though. I can tell, you know exactly what I mean.

Yet, he manages to be the most challenging and most wonderful presence in our lives, all in the same package.

My brother and I were almost just like you and yours, it sounds like, except I was spared the part of getting blamed. They always knew it was my brother starting it and later told us they wished every time that I would just haul off and punch him.

[Moksha Gren]

Same pattern as in my childhood home. The only difference was that I, like Mark, was unwilling to deal out the thumping my brother so richly deserved. My mother did eventually pull me aside and explain that one of the jobs of an older brother was to do some of the punishing that a parent wasn't morally able to dish out. In other words...thump him.

So far, little Norah is very low-key. If this pattern holds, Baby 2 (whenever s/he comes) will come out with a crash helmet on. We shall brace ourselves accordingly.

[Émilie B]

Time out is being punished, I assume, by being forbid to play for a few minutes, is it right? Interesting disciplinary measure; I take note. So far we've only managed the punish-by-removal-of-toy method, but that doesn't work with everything.

Xavier's nice and obedient enough for his age. Sure, I have to repeat some stuff and he'll sometimes throw a fit over a diaper change, but overall we're pretty lucky: no throwing toys, no pushing other kids, no biting... We've even managed for him to put certain toys back when he's done with them, leave crayons at the table and chalk at the board, and generally be proud to follow the directives we give him (ie. pick up toys and stuff).

I'm a bit wary to see what the next kid will be like.

[Simon]

Well, I'm glad to hear that ours is nowhere near a unique experience. The vast difference between first and second children has really started to rear up and slap us in the face. Sometimes quite literally.

Ah, it's all fun though. Most of the time.

[Terri]

I was looking back at pictures from when we visited you this past summer and was giggling at the impish look in Tavish's eyes. He's going to be fun! LOL

My kids get along very similar. Veronica much calmer than Jake. Jake, well, Jake is a little shit!