The Chemistry of Combining Kids
When your kid or baby is getting introduced to another’s for the first time it can be a nervous thrill. Suspense! What’s going to happen? Are we going to get fun fizzy bubbles? Or an explosion? Perhaps a new virus?
Sometimes 1 + 1 = WW3
If it’s the kid of friends or family meeting yours, it seems like the close relationship can be good AND bad if things go ballistic between the little ones. On one hand, the forgiveness and understanding between you and the other parents can sooth the situation, but on the other hand…
- “It was good we finally got the kids together.” (stepping onto the battlefield)
“Yeah! You’ve got quite a cute little monster there, buddy. Heh heh.” (the first shot)
“You’re saying my kid’s a monster? Your kid hit mine! The bully.” (counter attack)
“Bully!?! Your kid stole my kid’s sippy cup! Is yours trying to get into a gang or something?” (full-scale retaliation)
“Only because your stinking mess of a kid leaked s##t all over our sippy cup!” (biological warfare)
And so forth.
In this kind of extreme case, it can cause a teensy-weensy bit of a rift. Or simply be the bummer of discovering that, while you parents all love each other (or are bound and gagged by family ties), your kids have an allergy to each other.
The Children of Strangers
A successful combo: Lucas (left) decided the neighbors’ boy, Henry (right), was a-okay.It’s different with perfect strangers you may bump into around town. You want to be polite and you know it’s good for your little one to interact with like-aged kids, buuuuuuuut… it doesn’t always work out. And the failure is not always on the other side. My kids can cause just as much concern. Or more.
For each one of my little bundles of joy there was a moment where everything was fine and the kids wer””BONK!””you see!?! That’s how suddenly it happens!!! You don’t expect it! One moment you’re titling your head in a prolonged “Awwwww” and the next moment you’re finishing that Awwwww with a word that starts with an S and ends with what your kid just did to the other one.
Honey, Someone Shrank Charles Manson!
A few months ago, Lucas had a noteworthy encounter with a kid his age, just under 2 years old. We were out as a family to get me some coffee so my brain didn’t form a black hole inside my skull from lack of caffeine.
The kids ran up to each other and stood there, facing off curiously. The stranger-kid’s parents shuffled up and parked their mobile command center on wheels next to ours. We adults all exchanged polite smiles and weary new-parent, haunted looks.
I was watching with a plastic sort of smile frozen on my face while I waited to see what was going to happen. … They were just standing there. Then the stranger-kid walked forward into Lucas as if he wasn’t there! Lucas stumbled back a good five steps as the boy plowed forward. The kid’s parents were on him instantly, as if they were ready for this. Expecting it. Lizzie and I secretly shared raised eyebrows with each other and then proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes trying to simultaneously protect Lucas from this boy and chit-chat politely so these parents didn’t curl up into balls of embarrassment and shame from their kid’s behavior.
I understand that their kid was super tired, probably sugared up and definitely emotionally spoiled rotten by these timid parents, but that understanding didn’t stop me from glancing around for a fire alarm I could accidentally lean on.
Sometimes you just never know what the chemistry will be between kids when you mix them together.
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No one wants to read anymore. Okay.
Learning to talk is funnier than it is fun. Get ready for some Finnguistics.
It’s not a recipe! One of my most unsuccessful posts, though it looks like a recipe, is actually a funny story!
Jamie says: 
Monica 
Terry 
Leah 
MotherDuck 
Christina 
Turtle-Dove 
