While I was trying to think of a topic to write about for today, my son woke up from his nap and immediately asked for his gummy snake. There was no “I love you” or cuddle period for this end of nap resuscitation.
I took the oldest to the store yesterday during the youngest’s nap, and while there to get a de-icer for our chicken water trough, he saw these gummy snakes that are about 3 feet long and at least half an inch thick. He really wanted one, and had been talking about them for at least several months. Not being completely unconcerned for others, I knew that if my little guy, snug in his bed at home, rose from his slumber and saw his older brother had one and he didn’t, he would have a conniption fit.
I also know his favorite flavor is often strawberry.
So I let the oldest pick a color and then selected the appropriate (read “different”) color. We finished our other shopping and I told him that they would be able to have part of it, but not all of it. He was disappointed, but also excited that he was going to finally get to devour his 3 feet of sugary unnecessity.
By the time we got home, the terror had risen and was very excited that he had a gummy snake as well.
After arriving home, the sweet serpents were left on the counter while we took care of some chores and got dinner ready. One question quickly came, “can I have my gummy snake?” One question quickly ballooned into one thousand and I also wondered why I even bought the treats. The answer was rapid-fire “no” until after dinner when I opened the snakes, and ripped off about a 4-5 inch chunk for each of them.
I closed their wrappers to preserve them and after we put the boys to bed, I wisely hid them where the boys couldn’t find them or reach them.
Fast-forward to today, when the boys woke up and I was having my delicious morning cup of coffee and reading my devotion. The youngest woke first and came out, climbed up on my lap, snuggled into my shoulder and asked, “can I have my gummy snake?”
First words today. Not kidding.
I repeated multiple times for both of them that they wouldn’t have their treats until after nap time. Multiple times. Still, as they sat down for lunch the oldest asked if he could have his gummy snake again and after being told no, quickly made the most depressing face of anguish and tried to squeeze out tears. He was legitimately crying.
What have I done wrong?
Maybe it is just the age, but as I thought about writing this post, I realized that most of my posts regarding my sons are talking about how much I love being a dad. I don’t want to give the false impression that I am also good at being a dad. It’s like playing sports for me. I loved them. I was decent. I was not good. Similar to sports, though, I can get better. I will never be able to overcome my physical deficiencies in sports, but there are no physical requirements to be a father.
I mean, if you literally can’t be a dad, biologically, if you don’t have the minimum physical requirements.
In my laziness and wanting to earn some favor with my boys after being gone for so many weeks recently, I decided to spoil them. Spoil them I did.
Now I have a child bawling over not getting a treat 2 hours earlier than promised and another that screams in the middle of the night when he wakes up for no apparent reason.
Fantastic.
What do you do?
To be honest, I have no idea. If I actually knew the answer to that I probably would have changed the tone of this post to be more preachy. I’ll do what I have always done, and just go back to work parenting, tweaking things and working to change what I do until we address this. Ultimately, I’m sort of praying that it is just the age and it isn’t my fault, but I also sort of hope it is my fault so I can stop it.
It is ridiculous.
Anyway, you can find your own gummy snakes if you want to test my hopeful hypothesis that it is just the age and not my terrible parenting. The actual brand we bought was the Big Fat Hissee Fit, appropriately named, by the way.
In the meantime, join the Other Hands to like, share, or discuss whether I’m adequate to hold parenting authority. You can subscribe below to get them in your email, but make sure you check your junk mail and confirm your subscription. If you do, then forward this or share it with everyone you know! We can all laugh at how good I am at being a bad dad! Now, back to practice, they just asked if they can have more gummy snake.
