I always thought it would be super fun to have a child who has a personality similar to my own– and for the most part it is! However, there have been more challenges than I ever expected. If any of you have a child with a similar personality, I’m sure you can understand the feelings and frustrations of having a child who is just like you.
Pros:
- We love the same holidays (namely Halloween). It is extra fun to have someone who is as excited about your favorite holiday as you are. Halloween is an EVENT in my house and basically lasts a whole month, not just one day. I’m so thankful that I don’t have to hide the creepy things from my son. Every time someone came to visit our house in the month of October, my son would excitedly tour them around our “Halloween house.”
Our house always gets to have epic decorations. - He has a passion for the same hobbies as I do. He loves singing, reading, and acting things out which are all of my favorite things. We spend many a day doing all of those things and I couldn’t be happier. The only downer is when he tells me “mama don’t sing,” or “mama don’t play the pinano” in favor of him doing it without me.
- I can really understand his feelings. If he’s upset, I can usually gauge how and why he is feeling the way he is feeling. It makes it very easy to comfort him or help him when he is angry or sad. I can easily talk him through things and help him understand in a way I KNOW he will understand.
- I’ll never have to wonder what a boy version of myself would be like…
- Hopefully I’ll have a jump on potential “teenage years troubles.”
Cons:
- He can quickly outsmart, question, or buck the system much like I would. A prime example of this was on display at his Tumbles class. In an effort to minimize the toddlers running around, their instructor placed colored dots on the floor and told each kid they couldn’t leave their dots. Well, my kid picked up his dot, carried it over to the trampoline, and stood on top of it there. I immediately put my palm to my face and had two thoughts,
- Well he technically didn’t leave his dot…
- Who does this kid think he is? Where does he get that from?? Oh yeah…it’s me. Totally me.
- He has some of my worst characteristics. I am a very stubborn person, sometimes to a major fault. I can really dig my heels in even when I shouldn’t. Unfortunately, so can my son. When he has decided he doesn’t want to do something, or wants to do something in a particular or certain way, there is no convincing him otherwise. It can be a real pain.
This is our attempt at nice family fall pictures. My son was being stubborn and not interested in taking pictures at all. In the end we got ONE good shot with everyone smiling and looking at the camera. - Sometimes it can be like arguing with myself. Just imagine having to argue with yourself, or convince yourself to do or not do something. It is not an easy task! Sometimes when two people are too much alike it can really create conflict and a butting of heads. This is definitely the case in my house.
- Sometimes I worry that he doesn’t actually like the same things I like. I constantly worry that I’m pushing things on him too much. I want him to be his own self and not just do things because I do them. I worry that one day he won’t be able to vocalize his true likes in fear of hurting my feelings.
- I know what I was like as a teenager, and things could get dicey. I wasn’t a terrible teen, but I wasn’t the easiest either. I butted heads mostly with my mom because we too are very similar. I’m not looking forward to potentially having that happen to me too. Karma friends. Karma.
I can’t wait to see what other joys and difficulties await me and my little personality clone child as time goes on. We won’t always get along, but at least I will always know where he is coming from.
