Mommy philosophy: September 2009 Archives

I recently had a disagreement with a psychologist about whether Sam, at age 6, should still be crawling into my bed every night.

I tried using the biggest, most-professional-sounding words I could:

I'm a proponent of co-sleeping, I said. I find the belief that children need to learn to sleep alone in a bed in a room separate from their parents to be an unrealistic American idea that is not practiced elsewhere in the world. As my child grows, she will naturally require more independence, and she will make the decision when the time is right about sleeping solo.

He replied, in a nutshell, that I'm full of crap.

I'm pretty certain Noah's a friggin' genius.

Why do I think this? Other than the fact that he's already saying really hard words like "washcloth" and "Spongebob"?

Because he likes to line up similar things in exact rows.

His favorite is plastic bottles of soap and shampoo in the bathroom. He gets them, one at a time, out of the basket we keep them in, and he carries them to the edge of the tub or the sink. Then, he turns them sideways, slides them gently until they're just touching each other, then taps and bumps them until they're in a straight line.

He's so focused when he does this. So intent. So serious. So exacting. So adorable.

See what I mean? Pure genius.

I was certain Sam was a genius about this age, too, because she could tell you what sounds 10 animals made (cow, horse, sheep, pig, cat, dog, mouse, monkey, snake and elephant).

I think we all get caught up at some point in how fast our kids learn new things that we just can't believe they're already doing whatever thing it is that's amazing us.

Why is your kid a genius?