Clingy Baby
Dear Wacky Mommy,
Wow, Wacky Mommy’s life is so much more entertaining than mine–I thought the fulltime working mommys were supposed to have the most fascinating lives…maybe if you’re an architect mommy or a doctor mommy, but a clerical mommy? I don’t think so! I am actually trying to ask for advice but not sure of the protocol. What I want to know is what does it mean when your 22 almost 23-month-old is suddenly very clingy, whiney, wanting to nurse ALL THE TIME and he’s not sick, doesn’t appear to be teething (he looks like he has all his teeth, but what do I know?) I am worried he’s been through some kind of trauma and is regressing, but can’t think of anything traumatic he’s been through lately. Probably being almost 2 is traumatic enough in itself. Anyway, help, Wacky Mommy!
Signed,
No Idea
Dear No Idea,
Ha! Ha! My life, entertaining! That’s precious.
Funny, but Wacky Boy (who is nearly 3) is going through the same clinginess, and he’s with me all day and night (no he doesn’t sleep with me, calm down you Oedipal freaks), so wouldn’t you think he’d had enough Mommy Lovin’? If you can deal, nurse him as much as he wants. Make sure you’re getting enough to eat and drink (8-10, 8-ounce glasses of water, you know this already), to keep up with the demand.
And take a multi-vit and extra calcium (ask the doctor, but I try for 1,500-2,000 mg. a day of calcium citrate, even when not nursing. I take a children’s chewable multi-vit, cuz the adult ones make me sick).
DISCLAIMER: This is not real medical advice; please consult a medical professional, etc.
You might need to take a breastpump to work so you won’t be miserable next week, if he nurses like a little madman all weekend. Also, Wacky Girl went through a phase (at about 18 months) where she shrieked and yelled NO NO NO every time her diaper was changed. It was a little hard to deal with. If I’d been a Working Outside the Home Mom, and not a Staying at Home and Working Mom, I would have been convinced there was some satanic ritual abuse going on. Well, sometimes there is, we know this, but not in her case! Mostly — kids just spaz, and so do mommies.
Kisses,
WM
, 
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Not to be a *devil’s advocate*, but I do have a slightly dark question, Wacky Mommy extroidinaire:
What do you think will happen to me in a karmic or otherwise spiritual sense as a consequence of cringing, perhaps visibly, at the thought of organized religion in front of my children?– in particular, the thought of attending a church service with my six-year-old daughter.
I’ve been feelin’awful guilty ‘cuz I don’t want to attend church with my first-grader, tho’ she seems somewhat interested in attending services at her school’s church; and since she is part of the school choir, she is *required* to attend the school’s adjoining church’s services for choir engagements. And for those services in particular, I feel obligated to attend, and not *just* for the singing, if you-know-what-I-mean, and I think you do.
What’s this unchurched-but-very-good-sweet-mom-with-excellent-morals to do, Wacky Mommy? Thank you for your thoughtful and sincere consideration with this query.
I am a spiritual person, don’t get me wrong… but the Christian church has not been my source for spiritual inspiration. It’s extremely difficult to hide the way I feel, despite the desire to not taint my own child’s spiritual exploration.
March 5th, 2005 | #
OK, Wacky Mommy does not like to be coerced into anything. (See Feb. 14.) And this, to me, sounds like coercion by Religious Folk. I was raised Baptist, and not just Baptist, Southern Baptist. And they’re big on hitting things, mules, children and what-have-you, with big sticks.
I don’t like hitting.
I took the kids of two friends to a Baptist service one time and darned if there was no Sunday School that day! Aiiii. I cannot recall why I had the kids with me, but at the time I was dating a guy who loved gospel music (i do, too, I just don’t love the “hitting animals and kids with sticks” portion of the worship), we had the kids with us and there you go.
Another large segment of the sermon was devoted to comparing a woman’s body to a vessel, you need to respect your vessel, not let anyone dirty your vessel, etc.
So one of the little sweeties who went with me went home and promptly told her mom (nice Catholic girl) “All they talked about at church was sex.”
See what happens once you start going to church? Too much wildness. All sex and hitting things with sticks and jumping up and down. Wacky Mommy cannot condone this behavior and has not been to church since. So no more church for you guys, either!
“I had a migraine, and my husband had to do put new brakes in the car” are good excuses to give these Church Folks, should they ask. Or, “I have an incurable skin disease and insanity runs in our family” works, too. It is OK to fib to your child (“Darn it, we had planned to go hiking that day, sorry baby,”) but it is not OK to point out to them that “Satan” and “Santa” both have the same letters, as Wacky Daddy did this year.
However, if you’ve got the kid in religious school, and you don’t go to services, you will be gossiped about behind your back by the other parents. Attending services is kinda an unoffical requirement, as I understand it. I don’t know if this matters to you or not if people are pissed at not being able to proselytize at you.
I do not care what people say behind my back, and yes I am a heathen. It’s between me and God, not me and anyone else. My solution: Go Waldorf, go Montessori, or go public. Any other ideas, you guys?
March 6th, 2005 | #