Electric
Dutch has always been a mommy-first kid. She loves her dad, but when things go bad, she wants me. She never went through any sort of daddy phase. When she was upset when she was a baby, she liked to suck on my neck.* Even before she chose that particular/peculiar soothing method, I was better able to calm her down, with or without breastfeeding.
Skipper, though... it's early days yet, but it looks like Cook's got much more of a knack with her than I do. He's the one who figured out that she's not all that keen on being cuddled to a torso, and that she likes to lie on her back on your thighs when you sit in a chair, and that this will actually often calm her down from a rage. It still works better for him than for me. She likes to have him sing to her. She just seems to find him all-around much more comforting than me.** I had assumed that this would not be the case, because I am with her so much, and it's a little demoralizing for me that he picks up her cues so much more readily.
Happily, my status as the sole food source allows me to retain my parenting confidence. Phew. And I don't think we're quite ready to launch a family dynamic of splitting the kids between the parents. This is just another way that my assumptions about what-my-kid-is-like are getting busted.
*Really - it was sort of charming and also sort of really weird.
** This does make sense, since I'm not that comfortable. Witness the snarling match I engaged in with Dutch this morning. Actually, don't witness it; I'm appalled by my inability to be reasonable with Dutch. We may have to send her to boarding school when adolescence ramps up her remarkable gift for pushing my buttons.
Skipper, though... it's early days yet, but it looks like Cook's got much more of a knack with her than I do. He's the one who figured out that she's not all that keen on being cuddled to a torso, and that she likes to lie on her back on your thighs when you sit in a chair, and that this will actually often calm her down from a rage. It still works better for him than for me. She likes to have him sing to her. She just seems to find him all-around much more comforting than me.** I had assumed that this would not be the case, because I am with her so much, and it's a little demoralizing for me that he picks up her cues so much more readily.
Happily, my status as the sole food source allows me to retain my parenting confidence. Phew. And I don't think we're quite ready to launch a family dynamic of splitting the kids between the parents. This is just another way that my assumptions about what-my-kid-is-like are getting busted.
*Really - it was sort of charming and also sort of really weird.
** This does make sense, since I'm not that comfortable. Witness the snarling match I engaged in with Dutch this morning. Actually, don't witness it; I'm appalled by my inability to be reasonable with Dutch. We may have to send her to boarding school when adolescence ramps up her remarkable gift for pushing my buttons.
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