Adventures in Parenting

Some folks might think I’m just a curmudgeon to anything nice. Well believe it or not I actually have a job, pay bills, love my wife and kids, heck I even cook dinner on occasion. For all intents and purposes I’m basically human, just like you (most of you anyway). Here’s proof:

The other night a downbeat trend began at my house. It seems that before and right up the time my wife puts our toddler to bed everything is great. In fact there’s a bit of a regimen involved. Go upstairs, take a bath, read a few bedtime stories, perhaps a lullaby or two, and finally off to bed. Happy times all the way around. Up until a few days ago this routine has worked flawlessly.

Now at the point our darling youngest child’s head hits the pillow, there’s bellowing and crying and lots and lots of “mommmmmy’s” and “ut-oh’s” (the little one’s method of communicating something’s amiss). I might not be an old pro, but this dang sure aint my first rodeo. What we have here is a classic case of “mommy attention seeking” syndrome. The first couple of nights we attributed said child’s clinginess to illness (common daycare crud, teething, ear infection etc.) but as the problem turned into a nightly pattern we had some hard decisions to make.

At first we just let her cry it out. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, even 30 minutes… this kid has the stamina to go the distance. Finally, just before my wife prepares to make that guilt ridden journey of no return, I opt for a preemptive strike. I walk up to our little one’s room and open the door. There she waits with arms outstretched, tears rolling down her cheek, and a snot river flowing out of her nose... the pity-guilt-sad puppy dog machine is in full effect. It’s hard to NOT pick her up, but I know my sanity and my marriage depends on my ability to curb this behavior. I clean her face up, pet her on the head, and tell her it’s time to go to sleep. She grumpily lies down. I cover her with a blanket, tell her “I love you” and “ni-night” and close the door. And she goes to sleep. Just like that.

We’ve been on this new routine now for 3 days. I’m not particularly fond of it, especially the snotty nosed screaming part, but what’s a parent to do?