I feel the beginning of a "mom-complex" coming on.
In the past I've visited a message board and gotten to "know" some people there. One of the women has a son the same age as K. She has a tendancy to be an AW (attention whore) on the board and that's one of the reasons I don't visit there much anymore. I must be a glutton for punishment because yesterday I peeked in, only to find that her son is already counting to 5, eating all his veggies, keeping his hat on when going for walks outside and a handful of other things.
So what's my complex? It's that K is no where near that and I feel like I should be doing more. Since both boys are the same age, shouldn't they be doing almost the same things? I know every child is different and develops at their own pace, but it still makes me feel like I'm failing. Worse yet, like I'm cheating K out of learning and therefore submitting him to a life of just horseplay and graham crackers. At the same time, I don't want to be one of "those" moms who plans out every single minute of K's day with fancy language programs and trapeze stunts.
I know he's learning things. He's learning loads! He knows how to close the dishwasher and tries to turn the knob to get it to start, he knows to go to the bathroom when we wash our hands, he knows where his toys are, what dogs are (even though he calls them "arf"-s), he speaks a handful of words (maybe more if I could understand him) - I could go on and on.
For whatever reason I have the image that I'm supposed to be like Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, sitting infront of K with flash cards and music playing.
I don't know where I'm going with this post. I guess I'm looking to reassure myself that just because K isn't reciting the entire alphabet, counting to 100 or creating some brilliant algorithm, that it doesn't mean that he will grow up to be a git. |
7 comments:
That's why you shouldn't read the message boards! They'll make you nuts.
Plus, what kind of woman goes around bragging up those kind of things about her kid? AW is right. He probably knows all these things b/c they don't let him out of the house, being beaten with an ugly stick and all.
DD -
Yes, I know message board=bad! Bad S, bad S! LOL
How do you know she's telling the truth? If she's an AW, then it may be her counting to 5 with her kid going uh, uh, uh along with her. Don't let the chick get you down. AWs tend to exagerate - to get the attention!
I feel the same way sometimes. When I took Porgie in for her 15 month appointment, another 15 month old was in the waiting room. This kid could name every farm animal, and recite the sounds they make. He could also identify all of his body parts. Poor little Porgie can only name a cat and dog and can only point to her nose. But, I know that she is learning. Its hard not to compare.
Will doesn't say anything yet. He's almost 14 months. Oh, sure, we get DA-DA for every body, Maggie is DaaaDEEEE! His zebra is De-daaaaah, he will point at me if you ask him here is Mommy, but he doesn't SAY it yet. When you say to him, "PEEE-YOU, YOU STINK!!" He grabs his own nose! So cute.
He's no dummy though, you can see the intelligence in his eyes. He's always watching things & people, he just doesn't have a lot to say. The short, silent type. Yeah, that's Will.
Message boards suck. Other people lie. And yes, they all do everything in their own way. I'm sure there are loads of things their kid doesn't do that your kid does. No sweat. In a few months you won't care when he started counting, you'll just want him to shut up and stop counting everything!
I agree with the others. A friend of mine whose daughter is three weeks younger than Ant was telling me that at six months she was signing "more". Come to find out a few months later that she did it once. Which, in my estimation, was probably just coincidence and an overly eager mother. K is doing just fine!!!
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