Watch Out Hollywood – Superstar Coming Through

So Junior has been going to the nursery for a few months. And since he started he’s developed some interesting new skills and qualities.

Forget Sean Connery, Russel Crowe or any other actor/actress. You need to check out my son.He can fake cries in various tones and volume. So far I’ve identified the following cry versions:

• I didn’t get what I wanted
• I don’t want to do that
• I’m just angry
• I’m not listening
• Any combination of the above

So how do I know it’s fake? No tears. Mama teased him a few times, she said “Stop acting, you’re not crying”, and after a bit more effort he succeeded in squeezing out a tear or two. Somebody give my son an Oscar.

So I wonder where these new qualities, such as stubbornness, picking nose, anger, etc is coming from. I usually say “From Mama, Papa never did that when he was a baby”, however the truth is probably a combination of two things.

A child at this age learns at an amazing pace. It’s incredible how much they can learn by listening to you and copying what you do. So I assume some of the habits, he’s learnt from watching other babies at the nursery.

Secondly, I was talking to another Papa at the nursery and he said at this age, children tend to challenge their limits and boundaries. They want to see what happens if I do that, and what happens if I do it again after Papa told me not to do it. So they challenge their boundaries, and it is our job to ensure that those boundaries are not moved (which can be a very time and effort consuming job) to ensure proper discipline. I fear if we fail at this point we are going to have one difficult child to raise.

I’d love to hear how your child was at the age of 1.75 - 2 years…