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it's been a week or so since I've had time to blog. how are you all?
... ok, so I know it's important to support each other when you have a child. Presenting a united front, sort of thing. Parents need to back each other so that the child doesn't learn to play one off against the other.
So you'll understand why this evening, when my son has spent ages refusing to go to sleep and we're all a bit cross and tired, I've had to spend a lot of the time with a hand in my mouth and my head under the duvet so that he doesn't see me laughing.
My son has been on pretty good form today, recovering from the tonsilitis (caring for him with this plus my return to work from maternity leave has prevented me from posting anything for a while). He's had plenty of sleep, possibly too much, and has thoroughly enjoyed showing off to the guest we've had round, grinning lots and climbing around the furniture.
But he's also teething, loudly, and today the first little sharp, serrated points have burst through his gum at the front. The cute, gappy grin will shortly be no more.
He started getting whingy around the same time as usual so I got him ready for his bath, and got him into his pyjamas, and gave him Calpol for the tooth pain (what do people do in countries where they don't have Calpol? I don't know how any parent would survive without it!).
At this point Daddy arrived home, and rather than snuggle up all together as usual, my son got thoroughly overexcited and refused to sleep. we tried all the usual tricks: putting a favourite teddy to bed, a cup of milk, singing songs etc. but he just got more boisterous.
Suddenly he started smacking my husband on the nose. He's recently got interested in noses, mouths etc. but usually just feeling them, not bashing at them. Daddy understandably is rather upset and grabs his hand, telling him to stop. My son giggles and carries on.
Daddy shouts and sits up. He puts our son on his lap and guess what, he gets another bash on the nose with accompanying giggles. Daddy gets more cross. But everytime he shouts, our son just giggles at him. It's very undermining, obviously.
The problem for me is it's actually very funny. My husband's a bit upset that his (justifiable) annoyance at being whacked on the nose is just laughed off by our nearly 10-month old son, and I'm reduced to trying to hide my giggles, becuase our son's laugh is actually very infectious and I can't undermone his dad. In the end I realise he'll probably feel the bed quaking as I laugh so I have to leave the room.
Eventually I come back in and say "that's enough". The giggling stops and the tooth-clutching wailing starts. I'm not sure it was really an improvement.
So now he's finally asleep. But my husband and I are left to wonder how exactly you regain the authority over a baby that just giggles if you shout.
(And I'm wondering whether if I just laughed every time my husband shouts whether it would a) stop him shouting as it would be an even more demonstrably pointless activity, or b) annoy the hell out of him and cause him to shout more?!) |
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Posted by rose22 on 2008-08-05 16:54:32 | Rating: | Views: 35
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