My mother and I were on a website the other night were you can purchase letters from Santa Clause to be sent to your children from the North Pole. We were browsing through the letters trying to pick which ones we would customize for Cydney and my nephew. As we sat there going over the “good letter for Cydney” the letter said “You’ve been doing a good job at ____” and that’s where you fill in the blank. My mother and I paused. We sat there for a good two minutes trying to think of something good that Cydney has done. We were stumped. As we laughed about the fact that we couldn’t think of anything, we decided that Santa needs to send her a naughty letter. In the letter, Santa tells Cydney that he’s having to the best of her ability and that if she doesn’t get it together that most of her gifts that he’s made for her will go to Peyton on the other side of town (I find this extra funny because Peyton was what I really wanted to name Cydney).
I love my daughter with all of my heart. She truly has a free and rebellious spirit. Conformity is not her thing and that is something that I am proud of. But she doesn’t listen. Potty training? We started that August 2012 and she still doesn’t have it down. Why? When Cydney was asked this by her aunt she replied “Because I’m not thinking about it.” She meant that too. It’s go to the point where I am pretty sure that she does not notify me when she has to go as some form of rebellion against the establishment. Cydney has broken antiques in the house. She’s drawn all over walls. She’s ruined paintings of my mother’s. She talks back and get fresh. She’ll even hit back a time or two if she gets popped.
You would think with all that I mentioned in the last paragraph that Cydney is not disciplined and is allowed to run a muck. False. She knows she’s not supposed to do the things that she does. Cydney will do something wrong and then say “Don’t pop me!” because she knows that she messed up. I’ll say to her “You know you weren’t supposed to do that, right?” She’ll look at me with the most honest face and say “Yes” and depending on the crime she will well up with tears and say “I’m sorry for ____.” She’s really smart. Part of me is agitated by this but another part of me is amused because at two and a half she has already learned how to manipulate and find loopholes. She knows that I find humor in just about everything, so if she throws in a little charm and something funny as a response that there is a good chance that she just might get away with it. Never scott-free, but the ramifications won’t be as bad as she thinks they might be. Some may judge this behavior but the truth of the matter is that being able to maneuver in such a manner is what separates the successful from the rest.
Last week I asked Cydney “Are you a rebel?” She said “Yes.” She knows what I mean. I’ve asked her in jest is she a little terrorist and she responded saying “Not yet!” (No, not that kind of terrorist. But in the definition of someone who causes chaos and destruction-yes she is so Big Brother patrolling the internet, you have nothing to worry about over here.) It’s apparent that my daughter sees life very differently. She’s a lefty, and my experiences with them have been that they all tend to do things and think a little more outside the box. Maybe because the world makes most things easier for righties in a way that they can’t conform so they have to be a little more creative. Hell, I don’t know. But the truth is that she has a different kind of motivation.
Like I said, Cydney knows the difference between wrong and right. She’ll tell me if I say a bad word “Don’t say that!” and we’ve never really gone over what are and aren’t bad words. She just knows. When she does get reprimanded for things she shouldn’t do when I say “You know you shouldn’t do that, right?” her tearful response is “I’m sorry for drawing on the wall” or whatever her infraction is. Some of it get chalked up to childhood mischief, terrible-twos, and genetics because I’m a rebel and her mother was supposed to be a flower child in the sixties. Cydney will be on the naughty list because she knows better.
(Don’t worry, Santa has been very good to her and all of her stuff for Christmas is hiding in a box in the garage)
Single Dadventures 