Tag: sibling rivalry

children, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Count Me Out

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Full Speed has a tendency to wake up angry. He naturally channels this anger at his brother which often culminates in physical violence. Full Speed was feeling extra saucy this morning and released a flurry of kicks and punches upon his brother. When it came time to brush teeth Full Speed had managed to stop the physical attacks (thanks to some threats and coaching from Mom). Instead, he attempted to keep his little brother intimidated by striking a menacing pose topped off with a fierce grimace. After being mostly whiny (and who can blame him?) T.Puzzle had enough and finally fought back landing a blow squarely on Full Speed’s stomach. At this point I didn’t care who started it, who kept it going or whatever.

“Guys, knock it off. The next person that hits or kicks their brother is getting their first strike of the day. You know the rule, hands and feet to yourselves while we brush teeth.”

Full Speed denied any culpability and surprisingly didn’t throw T.Puzzle under the bus, “Mom, T.Puzzle used his elbow so it doesn’t count.”

That’s when Mom started to count to keep her own aggression at bay.

I ended up counting to a million and seven.

children, gratitude, happiness, humor, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Equal Rights

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There’s a certain balance that has to be maintained when raising children.  You have to be keenly aware of keeping things ‘equal’.  If you fall short a chorus of injustice will rise up from the ranks.

T.Puzzle was feeling slighted.  He was well aware that Full Speed had been on multiple dates with Mom while he had only been on one.

I hopped into action and scheduled a one on one outing with him. 

As you can tell from the photo, he was filled with much delight during our dining experience.

Equal rights for all!

children, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, tantrums

The Fast and the Furious

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I have written many times about how I can’t relate to Full Speed’s ultra-competitive nature. With time and experience I’ve learned that even if I don’t understand it, I have to accept it.

Where I have yet to journey the path of acceptance in this realm, is when I’m attempting to have a leisurely family bike ride.

I'd like to say bike rides were simple when the boys were little and fit compactly into one handy bike trailer. But alas, within five minutes of launch Full Speed would be pounding on T.Puzzle who would resort to biting as his go-to defense. Good times.

We recently purchased a tandem trail-a-bike for T.Puzzle. T.Puzzle is content to ride in tandem with ol’ slow poke Mom. He’s just thankful to be out of the tiny baby bike seat. So is my backside. No more being kneed on a repetitive basis by T.Puzzle’s overgrown four year old limbs.

The ride to pizza was fine. The ride to the park even better. As long as Full Speed is riding tandem and in FRONT with Mad Dog, things in life are great.

Why not mix it up? Let’s give lil’ T.Puzzle his chance to shine and hop on with Dad on the ride home from the park.

This is when near disaster struck. Full Speed was so determined to beat T.Puzzle, he pedaled at a furious rate. Even if I stopped pedaling completely, Full Speed’s relentless legs propelled us to the lead. I didn’t mind at first. In fact I could already see the humor of the situation glaring back at me.

I lost my humor quickly when at a busy intersection Full Speed kept pedaling no matter how many times I yelled ‘STOP!’

Things turned even more unfunny as we maneuvered down our main subdivision street trying to avoid oncoming traffic and remain in a single file formation. As Mad Dog and T.Puzzle eased in front of us as a truck whooshed by, Full Speed let out a tantrumific cry. He was outraged and boy, did he let me know it.

That’s it. I was done. I pulled us over to the sidewalk, hopped off the bike and refused to ride in the insanity any longer.

Full Speed’s response?

He leapt off the bike and attempted to beat his Dad and his brother by foot.

And wouldn’t you know it? That little man almost beat them.

He was fast AND furious.

children, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, Taekwondo, terrible threes

Dreams with a Bite

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Oh, T.Puzzle.  There were times when I was nicknaming you for this blog, that unfortunately words like shark and razor tooth were at the top of the heap.  As I went through the catalogue of your gifts and idiosyncracies, a fascination with using your chompers for evil was a strong contender for possible names.

So happy I went the puzzle route instead.

We all dream our children will find their passion.  We hope they excell at whatever they choose to endeavor.

One of T.Puzzle’s favorite endeavors is to bite his brother.

It didn’t start out this way.  He used to bite about anyone or anything in his path.

I told you he was gifted.

Thankfully, except for the rare attempt here and there on innocent bystanders, he now seems to mostly isolate his attacks on Full Speed.

Is it bad that I’m secretly grateful he is only biting his brother?

I feel if he keeps it in our family there’s less chance of a lawsuit.

What’s a Mom to do?

I wrote an extremely unfavorable behavior report for tae kwon do about his recent double-biting-brother escapades over Thanksgiving break.

Here’s how it went down:

“First, let’s commend little Bobby for helping his sister with the dishes,” exclaimed the instructor as he rattled off the first exemplary behavior report.

“Wow, great job to little Jenny for being polite and using her manners,” he continued.

It went on and on.  One after the other did something more extraordinary than the student before him.

Until…

we got to T.Puzzle and his report of biting doom.

And this was when my other dream of having a child stand out in a crowd was fully realized.

Maybe it’s time to start shopping around for some new dreams.

children, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Reunited

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Any suggestions on how to make the initial joy of a brotherly reunion at the end of the day extend beyond five minutes?

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They are always so happy to see one another and until sibling rivalry rears its ugly head.   Then, both are ordered to separate rooms and their rage-filled cries of brotherly injustices fill the air.

I guess the line between love and hate is very thin.