My child is a biter
April 17, 2010 in Uncategorized
Mrs Mandias left early this morning to update her First Aid Certificate. As a pharmacist it is an important credential to have in her line of work. I wasn’t listening when she mentioned the content of the refresher course, although I do recall hearing something about CPR. Resuscitation is all well and good but after this morning with our youngest boy lets hope they had a small section on treating bite wounds.
Yes, you read correct, Mini Mandias Version 2.0, is a biter. Not just a small nibbler either. He is a ‘grab them with two hands, molar cruncher’. This morning while trying to rearrange our garage into a something resembling order I heard a scream from the lounge. (Yes, the boys had been left unattended but when I left them they were fine.) I raced into the lounge to find Version 2.0 riding Version 1.0 like a horse while intermittently biting him on his back. With perfect parenting skills I jumped in to stop that kind of behaviour straight away. No son of mine is going to be a horse rider!!
After a lecture to both of them about engaging in such a pathetic sport I then had to deal with the issue of biting.
I will come clean and say this is not the first time this has occurred with our youngest boy. A couple of weeks ago, after picking up my boy from day-care I was taken aside by the manager. She explained to me that our boy had been biting other kids and that we should have a talk with him at home about inappropriate biting. What made things worse was that later that evening we had the annual Day Care BBQ where all the families get together for a meal. It is the one time of the year when parents get to meet each other and gossip. This year it was the Mandias household at the root of the gossip tree. I noticed the sly glances and shady whispers by some of the families as the meal progressed. Thankfully Mrs Mandias did a fantastic job smoothing over the obvious tension. She should be a UN peace keeper.
Biting is apparently a natural part of growing up and statistics show that 74% of young children bite other children in the course of their development. I just made this statistic up, but already it makes me feel much better as a parent. Despite my statistic, it doesn’t help with how to deal with a problem when it is your child.
Over Easter I asked the best mother I know and she said that to deal with biting children she bit them back. “Bite them once, and bite them hard.”
The irony that she is now a social worker has not been lost on me and perhaps that is a line I will pursue in the future.
Today however I didn’t really know what to do. Thankfully, while I dallied like the inexperienced parent I am, Version 1.0 came to the rescue as I fumbled through my options.
“He should go to his bedroom.” The older one yelled.
I agreed and the younger boy was marched straight to his room and given a stern talking to. He was granted a reprieve from his isolation a few minutes later and within minutes the boys were playing together like they were long lost buddies. That is the blessing of boys, they play hard and they forget easily. Thankfully the issue will be a distant memory in their minds as much more dirty water will have flowed under their bridges before Mrs Mandias gets home. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.
In memory of biters everywhere here is the world’s greatest biter.