Quite the Mother

Wyatt has been showing his “Mother Hen” side for a while now. I guess I cannot say that “Mother Hen” is the best description of what he has become. He is a bit more like “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” You know the part about giving them some broth, Without any bread, and Whipping them all soundly, and sending them to bed.

At daycare Wyatt is the self-proclaimed disciplinarian of all the other kids, regardless of age. He has been spotted hitting a little boy for trying to scale the kiddy fence and screaming “Baa Boy!” at the top of his lungs because a little girl was sitting in his chair. I have no idea where he could have gotten this (Read: He absolutely got it from me. I was a BOSS when I was little i.e. pushing kids out of line to get to the front and giving my dolly “shots” with large sewing needles.) So naturally I started to worry. And feel guilty; like I do so well. Are we too hard on him? Too negative? To authoritative? I started to ponder the idea of replacing the word “No” with more communicative phrases like “Mommy doesn’t like it when you play in the toilet, it makes her sad,” and reserving the word “No” only for times when he was in danger of catching himself on fire. But alas, my little boy does something to put my heart at ease; something that shows his nurturing side. While we were having some family time in the living room the other night Wyatt dissapeared to his room. He emerged with his black cabbage patch doll, “R.J.”, circa 1986 (no, not a hand me down from his mom, but his father!) In the other arm he carried a package of diaper wipes. Without a word to either of us, he proceeded to care for RJ in a very motherly way.... He wiped his butt. “Shu wee,” he mused as his wiped him all clean and then made a return trip to his bedroom to fetch him a clean diaper. His kids might not be huggers, but at least they won't have dingle berries!