I Was Humiliated By My Toddler

As printed in My Village News January 2020

I’ve never been more humiliated than I was at the hands of my daughter recently. It was in our garage when she was refusing to be buckled into her car seat. I had tried for 20 minutes or so failing with every bribe, walk away threat and Santa warning. The most humiliating fact was that aged only 23 months she’d already learnt how to strike at her mothers’ Achilles. In the final minute of negotiation I discovered it was better for my mental health just to let go. I didn’t really need to run that errand right then anyway and my resistance to the whole thing was only making her persist.

Conceding my defeat we retreated to our apartment. She was happy but I felt like the wind had been knocked out of my sails. I was deeply embarrassed I had let my barrier-testing near two year old get me so out of sorts.

Kids are the truest mirror we will ever have to actually see ourselves. I know this because I have never wanted to be a better person emotionally, mentally and physically as much as I do now for my daughter. I read books and consume Podcasts, I try to be more present but it can be hard to remember all the Zen Tao wisdom when she’s face down crying on the floor of Coles because I won’t give her a box of sultanas.

So this year I’ve made a simple mantra for the decade ahead, “be calm and laugh first”. Meaning when there’s something that threatens to make me anxious at home or work, default to finding the humorous side.

This is easy to say when I’m beachside and the ink is not yet dry on my New Years Resolutions but I’m vowing to bring back this souvenir for the sake of my sanity and my family’s.