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Bad tempered children
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I feel the same way
My daughter Isabella has recently started studying cursive writing in her Hebrew class. She loves it, she tells me every day; the curly letters somehow match her sloppy handwriting perfectly. She’s never finished her homework this quickly. Imagine my surprise when I pick her up from school and hear her teacher say she refused to do her work this morning. I tell her that often, for no apparent reason whatsoever, Isabella changes her mind about things. She’ll kill for a certain food, and then suddenly announce she hates it. These attacks of unreasonable behavior are temporary and should be ignored. In the case of her cursive letters, she was probably just cranky this morning. It’ll pass.
Once we get home, I give my daughter a snack with her homework. All things she likes: crackers, strawberries, and chocolate milk. She drinks the milk and eats the crackers, and then proceeds to tell me: “I don’t like strawberries, so I can’t eat them”.
Since when? During her six years on this planet, Isabella has devoured enough strawberries to feed a small country. I was right; she’s just in a bad mood. I tell her it’s fine, she can eat them later; but in spite of the fact that I don’t get angry with her, she pouts anyway and stomps off to her room.
She’s not the only one who sometimes acts like this; my three-year-old son regularly wakes up in a rotten mood. “Good morning Mendel!” we’ll say, to which he replies: “No!”
We’ll ask him what’s wrong, and he’ll say: “Don’t talk to me!” Well.
What causes small children to be so cranky for no apparent reason whatsoever? What do they have to worry about? No job, no mortgage; they’re not addicted to coffee yet so that can’t be it either. Maybe my confusion is caused by the misconception that children should always be happy. That, every parent knows, would make them impossible to live with. Imagine, having this smallish thing dancing and skipping around your house, all the time. It would drive everybody nuts. Like a really irritating puppy that never grows up.
Having said that, I’d still like to know what strange brain chemistry is behind this; mostly because it would be nice to have a little warning. When your children ask to have candy at bedtime, or a steak for breakfast, you can tell them “no” in the full knowledge you’re bruising their tender little hearts. That’s okay; you get those important extra seconds to brace yourself for any crying that might ensue. But when the crankiness comes out of nowhere, you’re at a disadvantage; you can’t prepare for what you don’t know is coming, and you’re left feeling kind of cheated. The only thing to do is sigh, and tell yourself: “This too shall pass”. Luckily, children have a short memory, and they’ll be back to normal within half an hour at most. Whatever “normal” is.
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