He screams if my wife and I hug and likes to watch the wicker bin afloat. Is this his bid for independence?
My son has developed new and original ways of asserting himself. Parenting books call this a child’s ‘burgeoning push for independence’. Irish people simply call it being ‘bold’. Bold, as distinct from its English usage, is a term for childhood bad behaviour that doesn’t have a like-for-like translation. It is roughly analogous to ‘naughty’ or ‘mischievous’ only, unlike those words, an Irish person can call a child ‘bold’ without sounding like an elderly dowager reprimanding her dachshund.
If we give him a book, he throws it on the floor. If we offer him food, he pushes it around the plate or tips it on the ground. More specifically, he becomes especially bold any time he sees my wife and I kiss or hug. I want to make it clear – OK, my wife wants me to make it clear – our house is not some satyr’s palace of erotic delights. I’m not talking about anything too scandalous here. A peck on the cheek or a genial hug is enough to send him crawling toward us from the other end of the room. Like a scandalised nun separating two overzealous teens at a disco, his reddened face screams, ‘Leave a bit of room for the holy spirit, you two!’ any time we get within smooching distance.
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