Monday, November 5, 2007

Biological friends

I've decided it would be much easier to be a mom right now if I had two kids. At the moment, booga bear is wandering around the house in distress crying because his dad just left. It's the same way when I leave. Because we're just a family of 3, we are the center of his world and he thinks we exist to play with him all day. I like playing with him, but not all day, and if I'm not playing with him or following him around outside, he's usually pulling on me and doing his whiny cry, which escalates into his uncontrollable cry. It's really annoying.

One day a few weeks ago was particularly bad. I couldn't do anything without him trying to loudly get my attention. He was okay outside, walking around and around the apartment building, but it was raining. I thought to myself, I need another kid! Fortunately, I knew where to find one because there is another little boy who lives in our building that gets super excited every time he sees booga bear. So we knocked on his door and invited him to play, and as soon his mom left, shazam! Two happy kids. The contentedness wand was instantly waved over my house.

So, I'm pining after something I'm not going to get anytime soon: closely spaced children, a.k.a. instant playmates--and ones who don't have to coordinate schedules. I'm sure the initial transition to two kids would be hard, because newborns are a lot of work, but eventually it would work nicely. It feels vindicating to have evidence that the female body's natural tendency to supply lots of chances to have kids close together is not some sort of built-in torture mechanism, but actually provides some benefits. Why have I not heard about this before?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The other option for a playmate, although not real practical for apartment living, would be to get a dog.

Melanie Bettinelli said...

"like playing with him, but not all day, and if I'm not playing with him or following him around outside, he's usually pulling on me and doing his whiny cry, which escalates into his uncontrollable cry. It's really annoying."

O boy, there are so many days when I could have written this! She's actually pretty good at playing on her own, but I often wish that I had someone nearby who could come over and take her out to play in the yard for an hour or two a day so I could have a little break from being the entertainment. Or an older sibling who was old enough to be responsible.

We'll we're working on the sibling who will be close in age; but I'm not looking forward to the first few months of transition.