Disclaimer – *Nothing in this post is a complaint. I recognize we have a bizarrely self-aware 2–year-old and I cannot imagine life otherwise.

My wife and I had no intention of bringing Jamie with us to the fireworks on the 4th of July. The evening unfolded as planned with Jamie going to sleep at his grandma and grandpa’s, while mom and dad walked down for the local fireworks show.

What struck me as a little odd is it marked the second weekend in a row that he looked at a parent and said “I go to bed now?”

The first instance happened the weekend before at a summer festival just before a band went on stage. We had been there for a few hours and neither his mother nor I were hugely committed to the music. So we looked at each other, and felt it wasn’t wise to argue with a 2-year-old, and we left. He fell asleep in the car.

It was the same thing on the 4^th. His grandmother and I were reading him a book when he made the announcement. I’m glad he can tell me when he’s tired, this just goes against everything I’ve ever been told about raising a 2-year-old. I expect a reaction pretty much any time we try to transition him out of any activity, because 2-year-olds (and A LOT of adults) thrive at fighting change.

Don’t get me wrong. Jamie has nights that are more typical of expectations. There are nights when he’s playing, or reading, or outside and the question of bed arises. On these nights he still goes down kicking and screaming and life seems fairly status quo as the parent of a 2-year-old.

If there’s one thing 2-year-old’s do better than fight change however, it is blowing up expectations. They’re pretty much good at throwing you for a loop on a permanent basis. I’m a parenting newcomer, but I’ll guess this is going to last until he’s at least 18 or so.

You can adjust your expectations but they’ll just change their behavior.

 

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