Two incidents and some thoughts
Incident 1: Last week I showed someone my picture book. They read it and expressed amazement at the main character who is always into trouble. They seemed to feel that I was exaggerating for literary effect. The conversation drifted before I had the chance to make clear that there isn’t any exaggeration in the book. It is a fairly accurate representation of living with Gleek.
Incident 2: At church on Sunday I watched a friend of mine with her 18 month old grand daughter. Throughout the one hour meeting the little girl sat politely on her grandma’s lap and played with little toys quietly. I was fascinated by that because it is completely outside my experience. I never had a toddler willing to sit politely.
I’m forced to the conclusion that what I consider normal behavior for children, is much wilder and higher energy than what other people consider normal. The next question to consider is whether this wildness is due to a lack of discipline from me or if it is something innate that would be much worse without the discipline that I provide. Unfortunately that isn’t something I can see standing here in the trenches.