February 1, 2006 - Wednesday
All right. I've declared a major offensive: "Operation Goober." Harry's whining and whimpering tone of voice is a bad habit and one that we've got to help him get away from. We worked so hard to get rid of that when he was younger and I'm almost sure that he doesn't do it anywhere but here at home (or with us elsewhere). I've asked him and he said he doesn't do it at school and all his teachers have consistently said he's a happy boy. But, "they save it up for the parents."

It's the type of whining that I think is stereotypical of first and/or "only" children and it ties into my theory about first and second children and wishing I'd left Harry alone a little more as a baby (not much, but a little). More to the point in this case, I think that a first child spends at least the first couple years of its life getting parental attention by whining and crying. We tried to break Harry of that habit and to use words as soon as he started speaking, but I think like many first-time parents we were always overly responsive to Harry as a baby whenever he cried. Second children, because the first one is there and moving faster, just get less attention and less responsiveness. And I think it makes them more able to comfort themselves and less reliant on whining.

Operation Goober will be a assault on whimping, sad faces, and general unhappy tones that are almost clearly designed to elicit a parental response. He'll get a response, but it will be tickling and it will be joking and it will be calling him out as being a "Goober."


Comments, Opinions?