Reflections

Jude's being a royal pain in the ass today so I'm forcing myself to remember what a good, and fairly easy, child he normally is.  So far I've found him covered in something sticky that has yet to be identified & covered in sunscreen (as well as a good spot of it on the carpet).  Two separate events.  Then he decides to start spitting on everything and when I tell him to stop he leaves the room, thinking I won't hear him, and begins doing it some more  He's being contrary and yelling  a lot, and yes, I have a decent headache now.  The "why" is making a very active appearance today as well so I'm basically just trying not to lock him in his room.

Funny thing is that is all pretty normal "terrible two" stuff.  The reason it's more obvious right now is simply because Jude doesn't normally do these types of things, at least not to this extent and all at once.  He's a rules kid and knows that if I break out the "mom" voice it'll serve him better to listen.  He's polite and sweet and typically would rather make you happy then piss you off.  Hell, if he were the standard our world would be a much better place.  'Course, that would require that the standard parents be more like us.

Yeah, I just said it.  Want to argue about it?  I know we're good parents.  I don't claim we're prefect, I do differentiate, so don't mistake this for hubris.  This is confidence in part due to the fact that my child is so well behaved (especially in contrast to half the little heathen monsters we run across during everyday events) and in part due to the constant positive feedback we receive from friends, family and strangers.  When a 2 year old manages to say excuse me to a stranger in the supermarket so that he can get by, yeah, that's a clear display of manners which reflects upon his upbringing.  So there.

Many of our friends are also up to par.  But then again, you are who you surround yourself with.  Friends are reflective of the type of person you are (not in specifics, just in generalities) so it makes sense that our friends (not all by any means, but a very large portion of them) are also exemplary parents.  There is also something to be said for having one of those "bad seed" kids, but those are few and far between.  I don't think I know a single person (personally) with a young child that I would put into that category... oh wait, no, there is one, but for the sake of feelings I won't even hint at who I think that is.  Everyone else we know has either above average parenting skills or has a child that is simply amazing and is so in spite of whatever challenges the upbringing has posed.

And since it's taking me over an hour to get this posted I'm going to stop there.  I'll leave it hanging.