you bet

[gfrancie]

On Sunday Miss Biscuit was in her high chair and Senor Onion knocked over the high chair. Miss Biscuit was fine (it is a well-padded chair and scared her more than anything.) and Senor Onion got into serious trouble. I said to Mr. Jenner, "Christ it is like living with the cat bin lady sometimes."
I suspect that Senor Onion didn't exactly mean any sort of pre-meditated malice toward his sister. He is three and I often joke that three year olds are kind of sociopaths at times. He is learning a lot about impulse control and like most kids he is in "the moment". I remember reading something a developmental psychologist wrote about the brains of toddlers. The way their brains are wired (or to be more accurate the way they are wiring up) it creates situations where they have to do something. Even if it doesn't make rational sense, won't do them any good or possibly harm someone else. It is very normal and exhausting but with time and consistent work as a parent, you hopefully won't end up with someone who dumps cats in garbage bins because it seemed like a laugh at the time.

Mr. Jenner and I were trying to figure out are three year olds sociopaths or is that woman acting like a crazed three year old. It is probably somewhere in the middle. So for those moments when Senor Onion really pushes it, I quietly think to myself, "god you are being such a cat bin lady."
Thankfully he isn't a cat bin lady most of the time.

Today he helped me wrap presents for his sister's birthday. He then put them in a special place so she wouldn't find them until the big day. We also baked cookies and bread together and played with his cars. Over all a good day despite everyone having colds.

Comments

[epiphany.livejournal.com]

I read the whole post and yet I still don't understand what a cat bin lady is. Is she related to cogshiftingman's mad bin lady? Or Osama bin lady?

[jillithian.livejournal.com]

Ha! I kept thinking it was the mad bin lady from cogshiftingman too!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Last week there was video (security video) of this woman in England. She had come up to this cat sitting on a wall and gave him a quick pet. Then she looked around, picked up the cat and dumped him in a garbage can and walked on. Thankfully the owners found the cat and the cat is going to be fine. The family looked through the security tape to see if it might show who may have done this and it was this middle-aged lady. They put the video up on facebook and through the power of the internet her identity was revealed.

[epiphany.livejournal.com]

Wow. Did they confront her and get an explanation out of her? What a bizarre thing to do. Especially since she petted it first! I wonder if they can charge her with anything. It may not qualify as animal cruelty, but it's certainly f'ed up.

[cutebutpsycho99.livejournal.com]

A friend of mind defined it as being little scientists -- they have to TEST out everything.

Which is really, really annoying. I prefer the term sociopath.

[ms-pooka.livejournal.com]

i would've shit my pants to see the baby going over in a high chair.

and, as always, i find it refreshing to hear about the sociopathic behavior of other preschoolers. it makes my preschooler seem less like a sociopath and more like a normal child. he continues to squeeze/pinch/manhandle violet at almost every opportunity. very slow progress coming.

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

Kids really have no fear at that age, do they? There's nothing about 'oh noes, my sister could be hurt if I were to tip that over', it's more 'hey that chair could fall over', then they push it over.

It's really all about repetition and consistency with kids that young. I have one or two Brownies who could have done with a bit more of it, to be honest. We have one kid who's eight and likes to lock herself in the toilets when things don't go her way. At least, I get to give her back after the meeting!

[phunbee.livejournal.com]

Whats a cat bin? Is that like a crazy cat lady?