I made a mistake today. It was an honest oversight, I simply wasn’t paying any attention, but the impact was enormous, far more earth-shattering than I expected. The result was a critical meltdown of the Zachary reactor that flooded the streets with tears, burst ear drums with high pitched screeches, and shook the earth with fury. This set off an Adam bomb that leveled the landscape with its utter pandemonium. It was public. It was intense. It was drama on a bed of sass with a side of chopped rage.
So what heinous act did I commit to cause such a tragedy? I put the wrong jacket on Adam. As soon as he slipped his little hand through his brother’s checkered blue jacket Zachary burst into tears. The sight of his brother wearing something that did not belong to him was just too much. It was the end of the world. Zach immediately took hold of the jacket and tried to tear it off, which sent Adam into a tailspin as he clutched the fabric to his being. Mommy and Daddy had to separate the two in an effort to quell the uprising. The entire event transpired during day care pick up in front of the whole classroom. Oops.
Needless to say the boys have recently developed a strong connection to their stuff. The jackets are just one in a string of ownership issues we’ve encountered recently. The same thing happened with hats. We brought the boys outside this weekend and used their hats from day care. God forbid we put the gray hat on Adam. WRONG! Tantrum. After a brisk hat switch all was well again. Most of these incidents involve a strong reaction from Zach who does not react well to other people using his very special things.
Adam is less attached to specific long-term items such as jackets but more attached to short term objects, especially the ones that weren’t in his possession to begin with. He will often grab something out of Zach’s hand (causing a tantrum) and then proceeds to break down in tears when said item is returned to its original possessor. He looks at you as if you have offended his soul deeply by returning something that he stole in the first place.
I know all of this is part of normal toddler development and there is certainly more to come. It’s funny really. I prefer these tantrums over others because they are easy to fix and they are just plain funny. So the moral of this story: stay away from Zach’s hat and jacket.
Relatively Ambitious 