Independence, Good, Bad and the Ugly!

Independence is what we want our children to have so that when they grow up they do not live with you but move out and do something with their lives. Also independence makes them less susceptible to peer pressure.

Elijah has always been independent since he was very young. He wants to do everything himself and only asks for help if he is stuck or frustrated with the situation. This includes climbing up and down the stairs with no help, climbing into his chair at the kitchen table, feeding himself with mommy and daddy's utensils. Then there is the taking off of his own diaper, which started the Duct tape. UPDATE: we are no longer using the Duct tape and we have not had any instances for about a week!!! Recently he has started to try to climb onto the changing table to get his diaper changed, climbing up the side of the stairs to climb out of the play room. Today he decided that I can no longer dress him but just hand him his clothes and watch him dress himself.

I have reached that day when another motherly duty that I enjoy doing has been taken away by independence. That is a good thing a bad thing and an ugly thing for me. A good thing because my son is growing up and wanting to be his own person, bad because I want him to want/need me, and ugly because it shows my selfishness for wanting them to let me do certain things still.

The triplets also want to do everything that Elijah does so as they watched their brother dress himself they wanted to dress themselves. I am not ready to give up that pleasure on all of them yet. The funny thing is that I want Elijah to want to potty train and he is telling me that he is not having it.

Children are funny that way. They surprise us with things and then are defiant in other things. Each day is a new day.