Sunday, April 27, 2008

unpleasant oral habits

So we're at church this morning, and another mom (we'll call her "B") comes by and says to my son (talking to my son -who is not even 2 1/2- but in that tone of "I'm pretending to be cutesy and talking to your son, but really I know you're listening and you'd better pay attention because this is really for your benefit"),
"Hey you! (tickling and playing with him) I heard you bit my son this week at bible study... (pause, I'm assuming for me to say something here. I didn't. She continued) That's what I heard... that you bit him! That's not good! Let's not start those unpleasant oral habits, now shall we? We need to keep our mouths to ourselves!" (all cheery and laughing like it's just so casual and nonchalant.)

I really didn't think much of it at the time, except for; don't act all cheery and fake about talking to my son about it like it's no big deal, when obviously it is a big deal to you or you wouldn't have brought it up. To a toddler. Four days later. Yeah, like he knows what you're talking about.

But I realized it's been bugging me for the rest of the morning. Like I'm feeling all defensive of my kid. First of all, B's son is 4. If it was that traumatizing, have your 4-year-old tell the two-year-old himself, "Don't bite me!". That would most likely sink in a lot more with a toddler than an almost stranger's sing-songy mini-lecture. Secondly, my son is 2. 2-year-olds happen to bite once in awhile. Some more than others. My 2-year-old happens to not be a usual biter. I think he has only bitten his sister once ever, and one other child one time in a daycare setting, months ago. That is to say, his biting is rare. I don't think this bite last week is the "start of unpleasant oral habits", and I don't even think it was that big of an ordeal if the babysitter at bible study didn't even mention it to me. Or either one of my kids. If, out of B's own 7 year old and two four year olds, she's never had a biter or had a biting incident, then she's just flat out lucky. If so, then you should be used to it, know that these things happen, get over it.
Ugh. I just don't know why I'm so worked up about this one little comment.

I think it's honestly because I like B. I'm slowly getting to know these ladies (being new here) and I really like her. And I thought, even though I've felt here and there that she babies her boys quite a bit, to the point that it might potentially get on my nerves, I thought that we could really be friends. Then this morning during church, I noticed her up in the front row with her kids (preschoolers/kids don't got to their own classes until after the singing part of worship) and during worship the kids were fighting over stuffed animals, the older girl teasing the younger boys, being loud and disruptive, and the whole time B either just ignored them or shushed them but really did nothing about it. They were distracting to me, and I was all the way in the second to the last row. And I remember thinking to myself, yeah... I don't think we have the same philosophies when it comes to our kids.
And then this little "exchange" after church with the biting.

I'm thinking I'm just feeling a little let down because as much as I've felt I could really connect with her, I also know how hard it is to be really close friends and have drastically different parenting styles.

No comments: