5.18.2009

Us according to Finn

So I know that kids come with their own little personalities and sense of self, but I really thought we'd get to choose what Finn calls us (at least until teenage days, right?) We have always addressed ourselves as mama and papa, saying these words deliberately and frequently. And no, I wasn't hurt when Finn's first word was ball, then bird, then book, then papa, but then .... mom? Come on son, does it really have to be mom? Not that there's anything wrong with mom--it's what I call my own mom, after all--it's just not what I wanted, and not what he's ever heard us say. He also seems to be leaning towards dada for Matt, again, with absolutely no prompting from us whatsoever. We literally have had the following exchanges multiple times lately: 

me: mama

Finn: mom

me: mama

Finn: mom 

and 

Matt: papa

Finn: dada

Matt: papa

Finn: dada 

 What's up with this?  Could a kid really come programmed this way?  I guess it's time to start letting go of any plans we have for him, even the most innocuous ...     

3 comments:

Marcy at Life is Good said...

He's just trying to show you that YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME, MOOOOM! You know, asserting himself. Kids are fun like that. ; )

BTW I left you a long comment re: naps on my blog. (Short version: I could do nothing to lengthen his naps, they eventually got longer on their own at about 1yr.)

Christa said...

I did the very same thing with my boys, consistently I've called myself "Mama" and all three call me Mom. So now that they are all young men I sign cards and e-mails to them with "Moma" as sort of a compromise... and I do like to think of my mothering style as somehow vaguely associated with the Museums of Modern Arts of the world...

foodsmith said...

Ha! I love that.... I can only aspire to have my mothering associated with such institutions ... that said, have you been to the HK Art museum yet? We really enjoyed it, much more than we expected. I think there's a blog post somewhere in the archives about it ...