Rationalization
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well then I would personally love to meet the jerk in the glass house who made this remark . . .
oh wait it was Einstein
Ironically then, I believe he did discover a unified theory – for the only thing I think that binds absolutely every member of humanity is the fact that we are ALL guilty of this – just some of us more than others.
My particular breed of insanity seems to revolve around the fact that – despite numerous examples to the contrary – I believe I can rationalize with my three year old.
Never having been much of a fan of ‘because I say so’ in childhood or beyond, I made the decision early on that I was going to avoid the phrase at all costs.
However, I have discovered that, in my attempt to be a ‘better’ parent, I have undertaken a particularly Sisyphusian task – something akin to trying to translate Eygptian hieroglyphs before the discovery of the Rosetta stone. There is a chance it might be done – but the chance is so small its like matching all 20 numbers in game of Keno . . . multiple times in a row.
For instance: I have many times explained that the only end game of whining is a ticked off mom and a pervasive state of absence of whatever it was the whining was meant to produce.
The standard answers are as follows:
“But I want to!”
“But I want it!”
“But I NEED it!”
and, “WAHHHHH”
Which leaves me wondering exactly what was lost in the translation. However, I am learning that absolutely nothing was lost in the translation and rather, that the act of whining – has very little to do with procuring something one wants and is more like a game of mercy – you know the one where pain intensifies until someone balks first. After many attempts my son has realized that I am unlikely to give in and that, indeed, the situation will only frustrate me, but yet he persists because this the prime playing field of the toddler ego struggle and . . . in trying to explain the absurdity of the situation in simplified, toddler terms am actually bringing upon myself the full extent of the absurdity of the situation.
Irony is a bitch.
