Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Little Big Man nearly fell in the gap last week. That's the gap between LIRR trains and the platform that can range from a couple of inches wide to more than a foot. We went into the city to see Pippi Longstocking at the Swedish Marionette Theater and when it came time to hop off at Penn Station, I grabbed his hand and said, "Take a big step over the space." Instead, he stuck his foot right in it. I hauled him out, avoiding making the front page of my own newspaper the next day. "I told you to step OVER the space, not IN it!" I told him. But he was oblivious. I get the Bad Mother of the Year award. I even heard a "tsk" from someone waiting to get off behind us.
The days of me letting my dear baby do whatever he wanted are over. I can no longer be laid back. He needs to be prodded and encouraged and dragged along by me into age-appropriate fitness levels. I was naive in thinking I would always be able to just accept whatever he did as adequate. But I see now that parents don't have that luxury. Would children ever push themselves to achieve if they didn't have parental nagging?
Part of the problem is that Little Big Man is a floppy kid. He doesn't have great muscle tone. In fact, he just started occupational therapy yesterday. The therapist told us he has to strengthen his trunk before his arms and hands can get stronger and he's better able to use a fork, scribble with a crayon and put on his own clothes. Right now, I'm trying to teach him to put on and take off his own socks properly, by hooking his thumbs over the top, instead of pulling on the toes as hard as he can and stretching them to six times their length. The way he resists this, you'd think I was making him eat worms.
The days of me letting my dear baby do whatever he wanted are over. I can no longer be laid back. He needs to be prodded and encouraged and dragged along by me into age-appropriate fitness levels. I was naive in thinking I would always be able to just accept whatever he did as adequate. But I see now that parents don't have that luxury. Would children ever push themselves to achieve if they didn't have parental nagging?
