It’s all his fault

As my regular readers know, the Munchkin is quite strong-willed. She also has a mouth on her that can get her into plenty of trouble, and an aggressive streak. There are pluses and minuses to her personality. On the plus side, she is a natural leader. She won’t be pushed around by anyone. She will constantly question the reasons behind things, because she also has a curious nature. On the minus side, however, she may end up being the bully on the playground. We are constantly on top of her for hitting her brother, pushing other kids around, and for disobeying the rules around home.

My parents have even shaken their heads about how strong a personality she possesses, because she didn’t get it from me. While all of her drama-queen histrionics, “girly” preferences (jewelry, dolls and dollhouses, dress-up), love of books and active imagination can be traced back to me, this aggressiveness is not something that I have issues with. Not as a kid, and not as an adult. I was one of those kids that would cry if you yelled at me, because I was (and still am to a certain extent) a people-pleaser. I do have a temper and a stubborn streak, but she just seems to have a mean streak to go along with those. I have seen her do things purely out of spite. And yet, she can be very sweet and loving, too. As I’ve said before, she is two – with a vengeance.

And since she didn’t get this from me, I blame the Webmaster.

Now, my husband is one of the most extroverted, congenial guys you’ll ever meet. He has a gift for striking up conversations with anyone, and finding some common ground to meet upon. But he also has very strongly-held opinions and can argue his points pretty well. Does this sound familiar yet?

If you mix the outgoing nature, the opinionated mind, the stubborn streak, the dramatic flair… it begins to resemble a certain toddler that we all know and love.

But the aggressiveness? Not me. So during our most recent visit, I asked my in-laws what the Webmaster was like as a child. His mother had mentioned that she saw a lot of him in the Munchkin, personality-wise, so I decided to press further. I asked my father-in-law what the Webmaster was like when he was a toddler.

It didn’t take him long to remember. “Oh, yeah, he was a pill when he was two. He started hitting, and we had to put a stop to that.”

I tried to confirm this with my mother-in-law. “Oh, he wasn’t so bad at two,” she said. “Now, when he was three…”

Oh, joy. I have so much to look forward to!

There is a family story about how the Webmaster (who has a June birthday) was enrolled in preschool the fall after his third birthday. On the first day, he decided that he didn’t like it, so he and another little boy climbed the fence and ran off. Fortunately, this was a different time (it would have been 1978), and a total stranger caught them (I’m not sure if he saw them escaping or just found them close by) and returned them to the preschool. His parents decided to wait another year to begin preschool after that.

Doesn’t this just sound like something a certain little girl might try in years to come? I’m going to let her father deal with her when the time comes. After all, she got it from him.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 12:05 am and is filed under Children, Husbands.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.