This is a Magpie. Apparently, it’s notorious for hiding things. My 22 month old is a little female version of the cunning magpie, for she collects and hoards things indiscriminately. This typically is amusing to us, but today was a different story.
DH woke up in a bit of a crabby mood. He’s been annoyed lately that Baby J plays with his stuff. Now, I really try to make an effort to take away his things when she gets her little hands on them. Like the comic books she likes to take out of the drawers and read, or his wireless headphones. But, if it’s not dangerous and I’m supervising, I don’t really see the harm. DH disagrees.
Case in point. DH has a little book reading light that he uses when I go to sleep before him. He leaves it on the windowsill in our bedroom and Baby J. likes to climb into our bed in the morning and play with it while we get ready to go to work. This morning, DH was really annoyed that she was playing with it, and I tried to explain to him that it really wasn’t such a big deal. We could buy him another one if she somehow breaks it. When he got even more annoyed, I told him to just take it away. But, he said because I let her play with it, it would make him out to be the bad guy for taking it away.
I told him from now on, he should just put things away that he doesn’t want her to play with. He harumphed and walked away, still kinda bothered by it, but I think he was content with the new arrangement.
And then, we discovered that him iPhone holder was missing. And I remembered that when Baby J. woke up at 6:30 this morning, she found it on the dining room table and I was too tired to take it away, so I let her play with it. Sure enough, it disappeared. We both looked high and low for it but it started to get late and Baby J. needed to go to day care and DH needed to get to work. When they left, I looked some more and could not find it. My husband walked out the door with a little smirk on his face, which bugged me to no end. But, point taken. I’ll just have to be better about keeping her out of his things.
How do you deal with this issue? Are you strict about keeping your children away from your stuff? Are you a bit more lenient?
I’m going to get ready to pick Baby J. up from day care but just heard something outside my window that was very disturbing. A Mother and son were walking down the block from school, the boy crying hysterically. Mother yells at him to stop crying because it was his fault for getting kicked out of class. Then I heard a “whack”. Broke my heart. I don’t believe in hitting but understand many people hit their children as a disciplinary measure. As long as it’s not child abuse, that’s your business. But do me and everyone else in this World a favor, don’t hit your kids in public. That’s just so wrong.
Minnesota Mamaleh says
*sigh* this is a toughie, mama. i also don’t see the harm in general. and let’s just face it, sometimes a few minutes of distraction is well worth something lost or a ‘lil bit broken. but my husband and i have had a few err- “disagreements” about that as well. i have no solutions, just commiserating, that’s all.
and about the spanking or whatever? you’re right, heart-breaking.