Wow, it really has been the week for stupid tantrums in Not Craig Land.
I accept, with some reluctance, the inevitable truth that anyone who has a two year old and a nearly-one year old will occasionally have to deal with some spectacular yelling, not matter how lovely the children are most of the time. I think it's the incredibly level of creativity in coming up with things to be upset about that still occasionally takes me by surprise.
Up until this week, I thought Bundle could not possibly top his previous two most pointless hissy fits. The first happened when I told him to stop banging his own head against a wall, and the second occurred when I told him it was time for us to stop reading the Bible and move on to a different story.
Last weekend , however, we had 10 minute tantrum because I said it was time to get off the train (which was not entirely unreasonable of me, as it was the station that our car was parked at). If there is ever an Olympic event called 100m while carrying two children through a busy shopping area with one of them screaming wildly while everyone looks at me like I'm a maniac, I'm going to win.
The same day saw spectacular levels of protest because Bundle wanted to see some monkeys. I blame the zoo's complete failure to put any in the Hippo Enclosure. With a bit more foresight on their part, the whole problem could have been avoided. Any solution would have worked better than saying "Hey let's sing the Hippo song", which was utterly ineffective.
For sheer pointlessness, none of these top the very public meltdown in a fairly crowded food court when Honey Bear asked Bundle not to put any more pepper in his own milkshake.
Cherub has been joining in too, with impressive howls of protest every time we try to explain that there is some very literal truth contained in that old Canadian proverb about realising that we can not eat money.
All the tantrums in the world pale into insignificance compared to those moments when it's all good, like when these two children sit in the bath growling at each other like a pair of hopped up wolverines and then collapse in fits of giggles a second later.
My favourite moment of last weekend was, by far, when Bundle and I walked past a florist on the was to the fruit shop. Not only did he insist that we had to buy flowers for mummy, he also took my hand to lead me into the shop, chose a very nice bunch of roses, waited patiently while I paid for them, proudly carried them home and handed them, fully intact to a delighted Honey Bear.
We could have a billion billion tantrums** and I would still be ahead.
* Yes, again with the Fleetwood Mac
** Including the one that happened when I was halfway through typing that sentence. How Alanic.
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2 comments:
I'm with you there, INCraig.
Who would have thought that the same child who had to be forcibly removed from the freezer aisle of the supermarket after being refused two extra tubs of yoghurt would calmly ride a horse?
Also, who would have thought that the same child who would eat nothing but fish fingers and would have tantrums to demonstrate this, would now demand cous cous with meatballs in preference to fish and chips.
Some say inconsistency is charming. As anyone with a pacemaker can tell you, this is not the case.
My boychild (2) had a stoater of a hissyfit recently while at a friends BBQ, because his moon went behind some clouds and Mummy didn't fix it when instructed.
..and Gigglewick, I reckon I would hand out free tantrum credits to my kids if they'd agree to eat cous-cous, with or without the pureed veggie soup.
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