As any parent can attest, their child(ren) is/are, quite simply, the best child(ren) on the face of the earth. That means at any given time, there are about 2.2 billion “best” children walking around the world. That’s a lot of best. And I can say, unequivocally, that your child is not the best. Because mine is. However, and there is always a however, with the good comes the bad of being the best child on the planet. It is a reality folks have a hard time admitting, even when we know it is true. “I love my child, but holy f*&k he/she can really suck sometimes.” Harsh, I know, but it’s truth. I can already feel the wind on my neck from everybody nodding in agreement. And in case you are silently trying to deny that your kid is a tool, just check out this perspective: Your kid is a dick. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Being a Stay-at-Home parent, one gets to see just how much bad a child can have sometimes. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way. A little bad can be healthy. Why? Because it will ultimately lead them to understanding their situations and how to handle it better in the future (unless of course, you as a parent suck ass too and never teach them anything, which then would explain why your kid sucks in the first place). Even just a cursory search of the internet shows that while kids may be a pain in the ass sometimes, there is always a chance for them to learn, and to learn from their crappy behavior: My Kid is A Jerk.
Case in point: I took my daughter to her MyGym class last week. She is use to a particular class, but we went on a different day for a makeup and most the kids in there were smaller than her. Two new boys were there for the first time and they happened to be twins. She took it upon herself to welcome them to MyGym in a way only she knew fitting: to pull their hair and punch them in the face. Now, a teeny-tiny part of me was proud! “No one will ever mess with my daughter” I think to myself. But most of me was pretty pissed off. There was absolutely no reason for her to act like this. None. Except on both occasions, the boys happened to be in her way. Instead of practicing patience, she found an alternative method to try to get them out of her way. She identified the situation as being favorable to her, as both times the boys had their backs to her and she was significantly larger than them. She exploited this advantage and went with the physical route.
The first time, I immediately removed her from the class and told her that she does not get to act like that and continue to participate. So time-out we went. She did not like this of course, but she needed the lesson. I explained to her why this was not okay and then asked her if she understood what she did was wrong. She of course said no, but that’s her usual response to me. I told her it was not acceptable to hit anyone and that if she did it again, we were leaving. Well, lo and behold, just a few minutes later she had done it again to the brother. After apologizing to the parents, I told her we were done and we were leaving.
This was not the first time she has done this. She has a history of being a tiny little MMA fighter. For two-and-a half, she is tall and likes to mix it up with the smaller kids. And sometimes even kids her own size. However, she never starts it with bigger kids. Hm, wonder why? My kid ain’t dumb, that’s why! It’s a tricky situation, and I see the looks on the faces of other parents when their kids do the same thing. It is probably the same look I make. But it isn’t the end of the world and it doesn’t mean your kid is terrible. As long as there is a lesson to be learned, it can be beneficial. The next day we went back to MyGym for their open-play session. Her behavior was much improved and only tried to push one kid out of the way! (He did take something of hers, so he kinda earned it!)
Raising a toddler is a continuous work in progress. Teaching the finer points of niceties can be challenging. I mean, there are times I want to punch some adults to get things I want, but that isn’t acceptable behavior. So trying to explain that to a kid is often difficult. 89% of the time my daughter is a peach. The other 46% of the time, she is a stubborn, hardheaded kid who knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it. It’s about finding the balance. 100% of the time, though, she is still the best kid in the world. Even when she’s bad.
