Parenting is no simple feat, and just when you seem to get the hang of it your child throws you a curve ball. Children are like sponges, they monitor and record everything they see and hear. They are curious and adventurous, and even courageous for they have yet to learn about fear. You must constantly keep your eyes on them for they are always developing new skills. The things they say and do will often have your head reeling in astonishment, bewilderment, and amusement.
As I sit and reflect on the experiences my children have put me through, I wonder how I've managed to stay sane all these years. It's no surprise that grey hair has started to streak the front of my mane. Let me tell you about an incident that I have experienced which had a flood of different emotions running through my head.
I was home alone with my girls for my husband had embarked on his first deployment to Iraq. At the time my oldest child was twenty months old and my middle child was six months. The girls were sharing a room and everything was quiet, too quiet to be exact. So I finished my workout on my elliptical machine and went to check on the kids. What I saw when saw when I stepped into the room had me in tears. I was struck with fear, amusement, anger, frustration, and helplessness. There was poo everywhere! All over the girls, the crib, bedding, and wall. On top of all that, I found my oldest child inside the crib attempting to change her sister. I had no clue where to start, and stood still in horror as I thought of the tasks ahead of me. I had no choice but to leave them be until I got their bath drawn, for to take them from their current position would lead to further contamination. Once the kids were bathed, I had to find a way to restrain them while I cleaned their room. I ended up putting the oldest in her high chair and the baby in her swing. If the car seats weren't outside in the truck, I might have used them. Toys were thrown away, bedding thrown in the wash, and I was crying as I scrubbed the remaining items.
Up until that tragedy, I did not know my oldest child was climbing nor that she was observing my daily actions. When my oldest turned one I had moved her out of the crib and got her a toddler bed since she had been walking for months. She had never went through the stage of escaping her crib because that obstacle had already been removed. So now the question was, how did she climb into the crib? Climbing out of cribs is relatively simple, climbing into a crib requires strength, flexibility or ingenuity. I was distraught about allowing my child to encounter danger, but I had to find out how she did it. So I put them back into their room and pretended to go away as I watched on from a strategic advantage point.
In Marine Corps boot camp we are taught how to scale obstacles such as walls; one method was called the "chicken wing". We learned to climb over a bar by throwing an arm over the bar and bending it to form what looked like a chicken wing, then we used our momentum to bring our leg up and twist our bodies over. My daughter used this very maneuver to climb into the crib. At what point did she learn how to do that? What else is she capable of? Through careful monitoring I saw that she could climb the selves of her closet, and climb over the baby gate. I thought stacking one gate on top of another would be a deterrent, but she found out that she only had to apply pressure to knock them out of place. This is when I realized that I was raising an escape artist/ criminal mastermind.
One time my eldest daughter locked herself out of her room and so I had to get a screwdriver to pop the lock. She replicated the action every chance she got, if my bedroom door was locked, she would get one of her toys to pop the lock and let herself in. She was only two years old and my privacy became non-existent. At my mothers house she attempted to unlock the pantry door- which is sealed with a key lock, with a piece of spaghetti! At three years old she noticed the motion sensor in the kitchen of my parent's house. She saw that every time she entered the room the light would go off. Nothing for her to do but army crawl across the floor to find her that the sensor did not detect her at that level.
There are many more stories I will share about my clever, crafty, and meddlesome children; however I will save them for future blogs. I hope I was able to share some insight into the struggles of parenthood, or at least provide you with a good chuckle. What are some of the challenges you faced as a parent or even babysitter?
T.C. Reaves
Tamarra, great blog. My four kids are all adults now, but reading this reminded me of the joy and the challenge being a parent brings. Kids are amazing, both in the happiness they can bring, but also in the ingenuity and creativity they possess. My wife and I will sometimes recall the kids' exploits just so we can laugh about them. Which we can now. We weren't always laughing when they were younger, but we can laugh now.
ReplyDelete