trinityroyal
Well-Known Member
difficult child has been truly out on his own for nearly a year now. The increases in his maturity are astonishing, and he is achieving things I never thought I would see in my lifetime. That said, I am astonished by how quickly he can regress.
Yesterday, difficult child came over for the afternoon to visit with the small Monster Tots. At one point, Tyrannosaur wandered away from the Thomas trains he was playing with, so difficult child started to fiddle with them. Nothing wrong so far. But when Tyrannosaur came back to resume his train adventure, difficult child wouldn't give them back, saying stuff like "I'm playing with the trains now, you'll have to wait your turn." difficult child was rearranging the trains and tracks, and Tyrannosaur started to cry.
And difficult child truly felt aggrieved when I called him on the carpet for bullying his little brother. It was as if 18 of his 23 years just melted away and I was dealing with a 5-yr-old. difficult child was mad at me for not insisting that Tyrannosaur share his toys properly, rather than recognizing that as a grown man he has no business taking toys away from a 3-yr-old in the first place.
This sort of thing happens All. The. Time. difficult child regularly regresses to the age of the youngest person in the room, whoever that might be. Over the last 5 or 6 years we've really forced him kicking and screaming into adulthood, but I have a funny feeling that given the choice he'd go back to being a fully dependent little kid in a heartbeat. A few years ago he even said that his life's ambition was to live with just husband and have husband take care of him.
So...is there ever a point when difficult child stops regressing and grows up for real?
Yesterday, difficult child came over for the afternoon to visit with the small Monster Tots. At one point, Tyrannosaur wandered away from the Thomas trains he was playing with, so difficult child started to fiddle with them. Nothing wrong so far. But when Tyrannosaur came back to resume his train adventure, difficult child wouldn't give them back, saying stuff like "I'm playing with the trains now, you'll have to wait your turn." difficult child was rearranging the trains and tracks, and Tyrannosaur started to cry.
And difficult child truly felt aggrieved when I called him on the carpet for bullying his little brother. It was as if 18 of his 23 years just melted away and I was dealing with a 5-yr-old. difficult child was mad at me for not insisting that Tyrannosaur share his toys properly, rather than recognizing that as a grown man he has no business taking toys away from a 3-yr-old in the first place.
This sort of thing happens All. The. Time. difficult child regularly regresses to the age of the youngest person in the room, whoever that might be. Over the last 5 or 6 years we've really forced him kicking and screaming into adulthood, but I have a funny feeling that given the choice he'd go back to being a fully dependent little kid in a heartbeat. A few years ago he even said that his life's ambition was to live with just husband and have husband take care of him.
So...is there ever a point when difficult child stops regressing and grows up for real?