Sunday, October 18, 2009

Inter-child Boundaries

This morning, when Magnolia insisted on sitting next to her sister on the couch, Kaleia's grasping little fingers found her arm.

This was not okay with Magnolia. Though she wanted to sit next to her infant sister, she did not want Kaleia to touch her.


Magnolia (pulling away and giving Kaleia a dirty look): "Arm!"

Me: "Magnolia, it is okay. She is not hurting you."

Magnolia: "Arm...pain!"

Really, Magnolia? Kaleia's tiny little fingers, that are barely touching you, are causing you pain?

Magnolia scooted farther away, only to be followed by her sister's grabby hands.

I saw visions of invisible lines drawn as boundaries on couches and carseats. I heard games of "I'm not touching you" play out. I heard myself saying, "If you don't stop that I'm gonna turn this car right around and we're just gonna go home."

Or maybe that was just a flashback from my childhood...

2 comments:

Carrie said...

I remember the first time Zoie and Vance started with "Mom, he just hit me". I just look at Ty with a smile and smirk and said "This is just the begining." We have not gotten to the invisible lines for boundaries. . it will come. They share a room so a line boundary may be hard. The car, though, is a different story.

Sarah said...

Oh. My. Goodness. My brother and I totally did that. We had the boundaries and everything.