Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Barometer for Parental Stress

"The right prefrontal part of a child's brain can pick up emotional atmospheres in milliseconds." I just read that in 'The Science of Parenting' by Margot Sunderland and it really is so true. The author was trying to say that a stressed parent can often cause a child to display difficult behavior. This is very often true but there have been several instances where Aaron has read me and put on good behavior instead. I guess it it can go both ways depending on his mood.

After a few days of rain, I really needed to get out of the house today. Well, I did get out but the great outdoors was limited to our front porch. I locked myself out of the house at the very same moment that it started raining. Boy was I infuriated, instantly moody and not in the mood to deal with needy toddler behavior.

Surprisingly, Aaron was an angel.

He sat on his own and tried to cheer me up by winking (with both eyes) at me. Its something that he knows makes me laugh. Then he played with a dried leaf. Later, he 'read' his magazine. It got a bit cold with the wind so I picked up my little heater and he just sat on my lap looking at the rain. We walked around a bit looking at the rubbish bin, the algae on the side walls, the mailbox and the wet grass. He stayed put. No wriggling around trying to get down. We were out there for 1.5 hrs before my mom came home.

It really was as if he knew that I was bummed about being stuck there. It is not the first time he has behaved unexpectedly good. There are so many other instances where he has picked up that I was unhappy, frustrated or just plain grumpy and he always knows to be good.

2 comments:

NomadicExpat said...

Awwww, that was sweet of him. How did you lock yourself outside the house? Isn't the back door always unlocked? :-P

Amanda said...

We've lost all except one of the housekeys so my mother took it with her and I was supposed to walk out to meet her but it started raining.....so...got locked out. If my mother didn't remind me to lock the back door....I wouldn't have been locked out.