I am not Alone

This is Teddy's "No" face and get ready,
more is coming when you see this face!

I had a revelation this week and many of you will say"duh" but it was a light bulb moment for me, seriously.  I realized that I am not the only one with a child that STILL refuses to sleep through the night, I am not the only one whose child is not a great eater (he is still underweight which just baffles me that he can be my son and be UNDERweight) and I am apparently not even the only one whose child likes to hit, scream and throw tantrums (and other objects) at will.  I have no idea why this was revolutionary to me, but it really was.  I think sometimes we all focus on not showing the outside world the "real picture" (I mean we all want the outside world to see us as a "normal" family and every time something bad happens, people always say, "you know they were such a normal family no one would have expected their son to be an axe murderer, bless their heart" or whatever the particular item of gossip is).

I have decided that we are all less "normal" than we pretend to be, which begs the question, what is normal?  Because I know that there are a lot of toddlers out there who are way less wild than my child, sleep better and eat normally.  I am finding though that if you chip away enough, even those awesome Stepford moms will admit to something not being perfect with their darling dearest.  And here is the more revolutionary thing, I feel more isolated when I pretend that Teddy is not the wild child he is than when I admit his latest thing and that mom then opens up with a story of their own.  I know a lot of us probably embellish (because I am not going to believe that your child speaks 5 languages at 2 no matter what you claim) in order to make it some sort of reflection on our skills as parents, because I know I do place a higher value on my skills as a parent than others, but its just not fair to Teddy.  It forces him to be an adult far faster than he should be, and let's face it, being a child is a lot more fun than being an adult most of the time.  I want to let him be wild, carefree and a general menace to society because that is how he will learn.  I need to take each one to teach him a lesson on life and spend a lot less time trying to make him the next Einstein, because there is plenty of time for that, but right now, he just needs to be a BOY, a TWO year old boy who screams, throws things, does not sleep, cries for his Momma and Daddy, runs rampant in the mall terrorizing the Cartier and Saks stores (this happened, but other places just gave him stickers and he loved those places and did not throw all their clothes on the floor, take that Cartier) and has time to grow, develop and learn.  And I, as his parent, need to stop trying to force anything else on him (I mean I will try to control him obviously, but there is a limit to what you can ask of a 2 year old) and enjoy this time because I know it is fleeting.

I am also going to know that other parents do what I do when I see their kid running wild, throwing food, clothes or whatever else before Teddy, which breathe a sigh of relief and say a silent amen that someone else is going through this too, that I am not alone and just apologize to the others and LAUGH.