Monday, March 17, 2008

Shame?

Is that what makes my daughter run and hide when ever I question her about her (ill advised) activities?

Neither boy has ever done anything like this. When the oldest did something wrong he made a clear logical decision to do it and when confronted he always had a "reason" for his action. It might not have been good enough for me, mind. But in his eyes something made whatever crime worthwhile and good.

The second child is a middle and who knows what he ever did or does. Poor child. He is too busy martyring himself ( "you dont caaaaare about meeeee") to do wrong.

Tonight's major faux pas- darling Brenna has applied Daddy's deodorant to her person. I am not even upset. She isnt even in trouble. But she is ashamed. She is refusing to discuss it at all. She ran away from me when I asked her about it. She ran away screaming "STOP CHASING ME!" even tho I was headed upstairs to make sure she had not spilled anything smelly and not following her circular path around the downstairs.

Its interesting to me that I have produced two such very different beings in 10 years.

oh right. 3.

I forgot about that one kid in the middle.







(I adore the one in the middle in all reality.)

4 comments:

Suburban Correspondent said...

Middle children are vastly underrated. And your daughter is funny - so dramatic and sensitive. That will be a lot of fun in 10 years!

Julie Q. said...

My middle child (also chronically overlooked) gets shy when he's in trouble. He does this thing where he smiles to keep from crying. It used to make me mad ("Why are you smiling! It's not funny at all") but then I figured him out and I can tell he's just feeling guilty. Sometimes it takes a while for me to get to know my own kids.

P.S. I love Alfie Kohn (the anti-super-nanny guy). Have you read "Unconditional Parenting"? It's one of those "pull the rug out from under all my parenting methods" kinds of books but I love it.

Sarah said...

I have read a lot of Kohn's articles and I keep meaning to grab the book. But it keeps not happening!

Jen said...

rofl