Friday, October 24, 2008

boycotting daddy's kisses

Lately Christina has been boycotting kisses from her papa. Not all the time, mind you, but at particular times. The most notable is when I'm about to leave for work in the morning. I have my 'about to go out the door' ritual: pack the lunch, put my jacket on, etc. Right before I go out, I tell Christina I'd like to give her a hug and kiss, and she'd come running...well, not anymore, now when she recognizes the ritual, she decidedly avoids participating, often runs into another room, and gets a little aloof, and if I ask again, she get's this look on her face, like 'I already said no!'. Ok, I respect that. I just smile at her and say goodbye and out I go. When I come home in the evening she's always very happy to see me and wants as much attention as she can get, so we warm right up to eachother..I'll pick her up and basically interact with her as much as I can, because I can tell she's craving 'daddy interaction'...so I realized that her behavior before I leave is probably because she's not getting enough interaction with me...she doesn't like it when I leave for work, so it's her way of letting me know she doesn't support or endorse me leaving, so she's not going to go along with it. Honestly, I don't feel like I have enough time with my family either. The traditional work model that I'm following where I'm giving my best energy and time to my work, seems a little backwards to me. So I'm with Christina, I don't like being away from home so much either. I'm grateful for my job, and glad I'm earning money to support us, but long term, I'm hoping to find something I can do on my own terms, so I can be with my family more. We'll see! Something that I can't achieve overnight, but worth working towards!

1 comment:

Cassia said...

You are definitely not alone in feeling that way. I know Bryan hates having to leave for so long during the day. But I'm so grateful to him for working hard so I can stay home with our children. :)