Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I have a new post up at The Mama Lake...musings on the use of the phrase "good baby".

A post inspired by the individual who asked us yesterday if our son was a "good boy".

And, the short answer is

"he's two"

And, the long answer has something to do with neuroscience, the age of reason and whether or not I am a good parent (or at least a parent who understands the challenges of raising another human being to be decent and kind and generous and loving...with major bonus points awarded for not inconveniencing or otherwise discomfiting anyone who interacts with our child).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I empathize. Pretty much any answer regarding my child these days is, "She's two." I forget that people who are not/were not parents of two-year-olds have no idea what this means. Unfortunately, there is no way to quickly to describe the roller coaster of toddler emotions to anyone in a few words and I suspect they don't want to hear it. I'm pretty sure that's why no one has yet awarded us the key to the city. They don't know how awesome we are.

Joy said...

We are INDEED awesome...now if only the plane load of folks my son terrorized last T'giving only knew that!

Beth said...

Our boy just turned 2, and while he has some interesting ways of protesting - they are still rather mild. He tends to be calm by nature, much more than I do! He's also a cute kid and people often remark on that, so I often feel the need to say, "yes, he's cute, but more important, he's a good kid."

Parenting IS hard, and there should definitely be more medals handed out!

Joy said...

Hi Beth! I've been thinking about the various parenting milestones that we "should" get honored for. Prizes for: getting through the first 12 weeks with a newborn; knowing that crying peaks between 6-8 weeks; the first time you get spit up down your shirt and into your underwear; knowing exactly what your kid looks like when they are pooping in their Thomas undies...you know, the basics!