Parenting Stuff

All the manuals (you did get one when you signed the papers at the hospital, right?) tell of children, especially little girls, moving away from the mommy-fixated state and glomming onto daddy at some point. I don't know when this point is, but it's definitely not at the age of 16 months. Our daughter is still firmly fixated on mommy, no matter how hard I try to be the Wonderful Parent. Like all Wonderful Parents, I take one for the team on occasion and assume Sole Childcare Provider duties for a time so my wife can take off and go do the things she does when she's not encumbered by two small children. When this happens, Acute Mommy Fixation rears it's ugly head.

It's gotten better lately. Sort of. Perhaps not better; just different. The full-tilt cry-until-you-turn-purple-and-look-like-you're-going-to-explode displays are a thing of the past. The new weapon is... the guilt trip. Take, for example, this incident that occurred just yesterday evening, when my wife went out for a walk with our 4-year-old:

Baby (In that tone of voice that implies a question): "Mama?"
Me: "Mommy's gone for a walk."
Baby (with a look of confusion, turning to panic): "Mama!?"
Me: "She'll be back. Relax."

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