The Task of Being Parents

The Terrible Twos
A two-year old can be an angel or a monster virtually in the same moment, as charming as he can be exhausting. He will put you to the test in every way imaginable and unimaginable!! It is the time of the tantrums, of completely ignoring every word you say, rebellions, fights with friends over toys, egocentricity, of always touching what they should not; a small child has the indescribable don of showing up his parents in public at the slightest opportunity and of turning upside down their lives in general. They don’t call it the terrible twos for nothing and to survive them you need to arm yourself with a large dose of patience and an abundant sense of humour.
 
Before having a child I could not understand how other parents could shout at their kids in the middle of a shop accusing them of being annoying when they just looked so angelic. Now I can understand it perfectly!! You need the patience of a saint to raise a two-year old, and of course we are not saints, nor pretend to be! We are human beings and, accordingly, imperfect by definition. Of course we must be patient, although there will always be moments when our patience runs out, moments of tension, situations which are exacerbated when we are tired or stressed. However, when we lose our calm we only make the situation worse because rather than reducing tension levels we are only increasing them; our child will copy everything we do and if we want him to be unruffled we also have to be calm. Rule number one of survival: if you want your child to do or not to do something you should do/not do it yourself otherwise he will simply not take you seriously.

I have to admit that for me the first six months of the life of my child were the easiest. A new-born baby sleeps a lot and is not going places: if you leave it on a blanket on the floor there it will be when you come back. For the first six months of life a baby only drinks milk, something which requires little or no preparation. After that babies begin with puréed food, then lumpy food, gradually moving onto solids, and it is at this point that every meal becomes a question of hours rather than minutes. Not only do you have to prepare the food but then you have to get your little angel to eat it and then clear up the mess (there’s usually more mess than food eaten at the beginning, especially on the floor, ceiling, chair, wall, face, hands and hair of your child (not to mention your own hair!)). Once your child starts to crawl there’s danger all around, and when they begin to walk and run that’s really when the fun starts!! I remember only last week when my son decided to follow a friend on his motorbike to
wards the road and when I went after him I realized that it was downhill and that I could not catch up with him, therefore I had to grab him however I could to try and save him from danger which is when I ended up doing a flip through the air and ending up on my backside, hot with embarrassment and with half the neighbourhood looking at me!! As I said kids have the knack of humiliating you in public and it’s certain that there’s never a dull moment when my son’s around! It is also true that once your child is mobile you need a lot more energy and speed to get him out of a tight spot and it was only when my child turned two that I began to understand why people claim it is hard being a parent!!

However, aside from the tantrums, the need to repeat things ad nauseum, a two-year old creates unforgettable, beautiful and side-splittingly funny moments that you will treasure  forever. He will fill you with pride when he learns a new thing, be it dressing himself alone or going to the toilet by himself or putting his shoes on or helping you around the house, and as he begins to talk you will be fascinated and surprised by his progress. He will go around the house singing and he will burst his sides laughing at the slightest face you pull or joke that you play, adoring your attention, your pampering and affection. You will always be centre of his universe and he yours and you will have an authentic and worthy raison d’être; thousands of memories as unrepeatable as they are ephemeral will be etched in your memory forever like a camera inside your brain, and his smile and his laughter will help you to forget your problems and convert you into a less selfish and a wiser and more understanding human being.