Look, I’m all for instilling a healthy sense of independence in my kids. I’m even a little eager for a bit of independence. It’s kind of nice when they can dress themselves, buckle themselves in the car, and pee on their own. BUT God bless. My middle is OBSESSED with doing things by himself. In fact, it’s everything on his own right now. As slowly as humanly possible.
I don’t just mean he’s eager to try things on his own. Oh no. I truly mean obsessed these days. My two-year-old not only wants to do things on his own, he insists on it. And God forbid I try to add the tiniest amount of assistance to speed the process along. Oh no, that mistake just buys me an added 10 minutes to the task, and will most likely guarantee a fit on top of it. Which will only add to the length this whole process will enviably be. So not only am I now late to wherever we’re going, I’m now dealing with a screaming two-year-old that is neither dressed or buckled in his car seat.
He goes as far as redoing anything I help with. Once, his foot was stuck in something, and he was crying for me to help him. I did, then I was in trouble for doing it for him because HE wanted to do it. So he put his foot BACK in the spot that originally hurt him so he could do it by himself. What in the world!?
If I lift him into the car, he gets back down out of the car so that he can do it “all by myself.” If I do something to help, he puts it back so he can do it.
Same with shoes.
If I put them on him, he takes them right back off so he can do it. Sloooowwwly! I have no doubt this boy was put in my life to teach me patience Every. Single. Day.
How dare I flush the toilet for him (after he repeatedly said he did NOT want to flush it), but I can’t even flush MY own you know what down because I should have KNOWN he wanted to do it.
After a cereal spill, I made the awful mistake of wiping up the spilled milk when I should have known HE wanted to be the one to clean it. So he proceeded to dump the remaining milk from his bowl out on the table so he could clean it himself. Bless him!
So, although I’m sure this stage will eventually pass just as quickly as it showed up, I am questioning my own sanity as I watch this strong-willed little one fight tooth and nail for his obsession with his own independence.
