Interpretations

Our son is so proud to be a big boy. When we tell him he is being a big boy, it just puts a smile on his face and a spring in his step! When he's told that he isn't being a big boy, he drops his head and cries. You know kids want to please us. We were in a drive-thru getting food and he and his sister were in the back seat fussing over a toy. Daddy and I intervened and took the toy. Our daughter accepted it, but our son had a fit. He slumped down in the seat and screamed. "You aren't being a big boy," I calmly told him. "You better get it together now," daddy added. He just cried louder. By this time we were at the window to get our food. The person at the window slowly gave us our food and peered in the van. "Awww, what's wrong with the baby?" she asked. In an instant, the crying stopped. He rubbed his eyes, looked toward the window and firmly said, "I'm not a baby, I a big boy!" He mumbled something else but we couldn't make it out. Daddy then told him, "That's it. If you can't get it together we aren't going anywhere else. We'll just go back to the crib!" Then the crying and screaming continued and he added kicking. I cut the radio up. I couldn't believe we had to hear all this over a small toy, that they have played with myriad times. There had to be something else going on in his little head. I looked back at him and asked, "Are you still mad about the toy?" He shook his head no. "You don't want to go home yet?" Daddy did tell him that we were going back to the "crib". He wiped his face and said, "I don't wanna go back to sleeping in the baby bed!" I told daddy that he cannot talk like that around the kids- our son had no idea daddy was talking about the house.