My son has recently established that he has left the cute and cuddly world of baby bliss and entered the aptly named terrible twos. He’s two and a half, an entire year later than when his sister decided to test the waters of childhood schizophrenia. She’s left the twos behind, fortunately. Mostly that means she has a tad more self-control. But she’s bigger so she can scream louder. It’s a tradeoff.

I tried feeding the boy an english muffin this morning and he wouldn’t have it. He wanted it unsplit, he wanted it plain, no butter, not on a purple plate, not that purple plate, where’s my purple plate, I WANT MY PURPLE PLATE, WHERE’S MY MUFFIN!?

Yah.

Then he requested oatmeal. Then he didn’t want oatmeal (after I made it). Then he wanted another muffin. Then he wanted oatmeal again. Patience. Reverse psychology seems to work well at this age. He says he doesn’t want his vitamin so I agree and take it away. Instantly, he wants it back and he gobbles it up.

This too shall pass.

Comments

1. David on 2005-03-04 07:14:35 wrote: Compliments on your blog. Hope you’re looking forward to the terrible threes as well. It sounds just as good.

2. Rebecca on 2005-10-14 09:01:40 wrote: Thank you! I also have a two-and-a-half year-old who seemingly turned schizophrenic overnight - I was beginning to think something was seriously wrong with her. It’s very reassuring to know that I’m not alone and that this behaviour is a “normal” part of childhood.