Lately Liam has developed a case of what I refer to as the 5 o' clock meanies. It's been in the works for a while now, but seems that much worse now that we've been back to work after our vacation time; and it's probably no coincidence. When I pick Liam up from daycare, most days he still wants nothing to do with me and is angered that I am tearing him away from his activities and his friends; but when we walk in the door at home, and I am juggling making dinner with reading the mail with clearing out both of our bags and stocking them for the next day, he turns into a whiny, clingy little guy who has nothing better to do than to latch onto my legs as I try to manoeuvre around the kitchen. I make a conscious point of trying to sit down and play with him for a while before I get dinner going, but sometimes (depending on what's on the menu) it would make so much more sense to get some water boiling or some chicken in the oven or something like that BEFORE attending to him. Alas, he just doesn't get it. Lately it's gotten so bad that I am increasingly resorting to picking up takeout on the way home from work, just to avoid the situation; I can have quality time with him or my health, but not, it would seem, both. I have also tried (with little success) giving him a snack the minute we get home so that it's not an empty tummy that is making him irritable. You'd think that once Chad comes home things would improve; but even if Chad is offering to play ball or chase with him, his very favourite games, he's still latching onto me and wailing pitifully. If he actually enjoyed sitting down and playing with me I could understand the cause and effect relationship here and maybe that would make it easier to bear. But normally when I sit down to play with him, he is off and running to the other end of the house to do something completely different on his own; and I'm left wondering what he gets out of me being completely uninvolved with him yet 100% at his disposal, and also what sort of sixth-sense magnetism it is that he has that brings him back to me only after I've tiptoed into the kitchen to try to get something done.
Friday, September 08, 2006
The 5 o' clock meanies
Lately Liam has developed a case of what I refer to as the 5 o' clock meanies. It's been in the works for a while now, but seems that much worse now that we've been back to work after our vacation time; and it's probably no coincidence. When I pick Liam up from daycare, most days he still wants nothing to do with me and is angered that I am tearing him away from his activities and his friends; but when we walk in the door at home, and I am juggling making dinner with reading the mail with clearing out both of our bags and stocking them for the next day, he turns into a whiny, clingy little guy who has nothing better to do than to latch onto my legs as I try to manoeuvre around the kitchen. I make a conscious point of trying to sit down and play with him for a while before I get dinner going, but sometimes (depending on what's on the menu) it would make so much more sense to get some water boiling or some chicken in the oven or something like that BEFORE attending to him. Alas, he just doesn't get it. Lately it's gotten so bad that I am increasingly resorting to picking up takeout on the way home from work, just to avoid the situation; I can have quality time with him or my health, but not, it would seem, both. I have also tried (with little success) giving him a snack the minute we get home so that it's not an empty tummy that is making him irritable. You'd think that once Chad comes home things would improve; but even if Chad is offering to play ball or chase with him, his very favourite games, he's still latching onto me and wailing pitifully. If he actually enjoyed sitting down and playing with me I could understand the cause and effect relationship here and maybe that would make it easier to bear. But normally when I sit down to play with him, he is off and running to the other end of the house to do something completely different on his own; and I'm left wondering what he gets out of me being completely uninvolved with him yet 100% at his disposal, and also what sort of sixth-sense magnetism it is that he has that brings him back to me only after I've tiptoed into the kitchen to try to get something done.
1 comments:
Em's not in daycare and what you've described sounds VERY familiar. I read somewhere that separation anxiety peaks at 18 months - they're both very close to that. I have to wonder who told EMILY that it was going to peak around this time. ;)
It's a bit nutty and makes it very hard to get anything done but attending to her, and even then she isn't always thrilled.
Feeling your pain over here. I've taken to crock pot dinners.
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