Am I Here For Your Amusement?

Entertaining a 2-year-old can be a risky position to be in.

Do things wrong and the results can backfire with a crying fit or temper tantrum, leaving you in a more compromised position than you were in before. But it’s also important to visualize what success might look like. If he’s too enthralled with whatever new game you are playing, you’ll never stop hearing the word “Again?”

The lesson out of all of this is to not do anything once that you aren’t willing to do all day for the entertainment of your kid. HAVE FUN! Sometimes you are lucky enough that they scrape their own entertainment together in the strangest ways.

The other day I ended up on the driveway with Jamie while he played in his toy car. He didn’t want me to push him. He didn’t want to use his legs to move forward. He wanted sit down in it. Then he wanted to get out, so he climbed out. He stood up. And he closed the door. Then he climbed in and sat back down. Closed the door. Rinse. Repeat. Over and over and over and over again.

I watched this happen with what I now understand to be flawed thinking. How could this POSSIBLY BE FUN!!!??? But apparently it was.

“Jamie do you want to blow bubbles?”

“No.”

“Jamie do you want to play with chalk?”

“No.”

“Jamie, can I push you in the car?”

“NOOOOOOO!!!!!”

OK then.

Open the door. Close the door. Stand up. Sit down. Rinse. Repeat.

Having a toddler in the house necessitates speeding up in a lot of ways. If he darts into the street you better be ready to catch him. If he walks away at a crowded summer festival you better be ready to hustle.

But when he wants to do the same thing over and over again while playing in the driveway it’s time to slow down. A toy car is nothing new to you, the parent. It is nothing special. As a matter of fact, I have two real ones in the garage.

But everything is new to him, hence the need to pick the most basic action he could, and repeat. Watching him get in and out of his car that many times in a given window felt a lot like watching the paint dry, or the grass grow. But that doesn’t mean it was boring to him.

Sometimes I don’t always need to be the entertainment for him, and I don’t mean that in any kind of arrogant way. Sometimes he can just be. What is old to me is new to him. It’s his turn to discover.

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