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August 02, 2007

Unreliable at Best

So with my half-time work schedule, we've been doing a combination of leaving the Bug home with Daddy and hiring a babysitter for the occasional morning or afternoon. Today was the first day I've left the Bug with the teen babysitter for a longer stretch. I think things went fine; I'm still a little nervous about the whole thing, but she seems like a good kid and quite responsible, with lots of babysitting experience. I also hope that I know my child well enough to know if something was wrong when I return. Today the report was "Bug cried." "Why did you cry?" I asked. "From S..." (the babysitter). "What did S do?" "Played puzzles with me!" "And that made you cry?" "Potty made Bug cry." S gave me the story, which was just that the Bug was getting tired and had a fit over which potty to use. Not unusual. Later, after S had left, I asked if S had anything to eat (I've give her free reign of the fridge and cupboard). "YES!" "What did she eat?" "Pancakes! And waffles!" I think for toddlers, the line between reality and elaborate invention is very thin. I read somewhere that children this age often don't differentiate between reality and what delights them to think/talk about. Hence stories about Rubber Duckie having made the mess on the bathroom floor, and so forth. Wishful thinking is more or less real to them, or at least that is the only way they know how to express it. In any case, this whole transition is going about as well as could be expected. I'm just having to work extra hard on being patient, and I sometimes have a hard time switching back and forth between Work Me and Mommy Me. It really does take completely different brain functions, both of which can be quite taxing.

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