Toddlers Vs. Teenagers…

     Raising kids is an all day, everyday challenge, but lately, my oldest son…who is only 4 1/2… has really been putting me to the test. I thought it was cute when he was 2, and told me I was ruining his life! I remember saying I thought that was something he would say to me as a teenager not as a two year old, but they don’t call them the terrible two’s for nothing!


     His whole third year of life, I have tried to block from my memory…OK, it’s not that bad, but two was a dream compared to the attitude that came along with 3. When he was 2, he sharpied our TV, peed on a lot of stuff, and was just all around destructive, but it was all stuff I could clean up, and put back together. Three was a whole new ball game! Now, my tornado of destruction calmed down, but all the wind from the tornado was now coming right out of his mouth! All of the sudden he knew everything, and was talking back like never before. I was suddenly regretting spending all that time teaching him how to talk : )

The shirt says it all :)

     We made it through 3 alive, and so far, four has been pretty smooth sailing. He’s still a know it all… I blame his father’s genes for that… but he’s learned to be more respectful, and aware of what is coming out of his mouth. Now that it’s warm out, our biggest struggle has been his social life… Again something I thought would come with teenage years : ) We live on a dead end street, and most of the houses are filled with kids around his age. Some older, some younger, but for the most part, they all play nice, and all of the mom’s are on the same page so together, we help keep an eye on the block. I love our little street, and the mom’s on it!


     Up until a couple of weeks ago, we were giving JJ a little bit of freedom this year, and letting him go outside without us. He knows not to go in the street, and we can hear and see him everywhere he goes from inside. Fat dad and I noticed that one of the older kids wasn’t playing fair. He would tell JJ to come to his pool, but not let JJ splash while he was jumping in and out and splashing all around. This was just one of a couple of things we noticed before we talked to the older boy, and stopped letting JJ play with him. Unfortunately, JJ is a social butterfly, like his mom, and he didn’t realize he was being mistreated. He just wants to play with someone other than his sister!


     We thought all was great until yesterday when I was in the bathroom with AL, and I heard JJ run upstairs, into my room, and back downstairs without a toy or a bathroom break so I asked what he was doing. He replied “NOTHING” which always means something : ) Then I saw his hand in his pocket so I asked what he had, and he pulled out a 10 dollar bill. I asked what he was doing with it, he said I’m going to give it YY to play with his sword. I said no way, friends share their toys and we never give someone money to play with them or their stuff, not to mention it’s mom’s money, and that’s stealing. He said ok, and went on his way, and after a while, I didn’t give it too much thought.


     Then I went into to where I had my money… it was in my top dresser drawer, not very hidden, but it’s our family money so it’s for Fat Dad too. When I went to get some money for the kids to get ice cream cones, I realized I was missing a $50 bill!!! I called Fat Dad at work right away to make sure he hadn’t used it on something and forgotten to tell me. He’s usually very good at telling me so I don’t have a panic attack when I see that much money is missing. He said no he had not taken it, and my mind immediately went back to the $10 JJ had tried to take today. Was this not the first time he had payed to play with toys identical to the ones in our own house??? Again, he is only 4 so he has no real concept of the difference between a 10 dollar bill and a 50 dollar bill.


     I went outside and asked him to come with in with me. We sat down and I asked him if he had ever given YY money before. His first response was no, because from my reaction to the $10 today he knew it was wrong. Then in typical big brother fashion he said he had not, but AL had in fact given his friend money. I told him it’s not nice to lie to your mom, and blame your sister for your actions, and then broke up our one on one to try to retrieve my money! Luckily, like I said we have some amazing mothers on our block, and once I told her, she was just as panicked as I was! She asked YY, and sure enough, there was my 50 dollar bill in his wallet. She apologized, and I knew YY would be getting into just as much trouble as JJ.

<3

     I was getting ready for work when all of this was happening, so I didn’t get to talk to JJ about it as much as I would have liked, but he knew he was in BIG trouble. We talked about stealing, and what mommy’s and daddy’s use their money for, and needless to say, my stash is no longer in my dresser drawer! Overall, I’m just happy I got the money back, and I hope after a week of no friends he will have learned his lesson. Once again I found myself asking isn’t this something they do as teenagers??? Maybe this is just round one, and it will be less innocent for the second round, or maybe he is getting all of his naughtiness out of his system so when he is a teenager he will be an angel : ) Hey, a mother can dream can’t she???


     Is your toddler acting like a teenager? What are some crazy things your toddlers have done? I know I could write a book… or maybe just a blog : )
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