Don’t Touch His Face

My 4 year old son is so much like me that it surprises me sometimes. Not only does he look like a carbon copy of me when I was little, his mannerisms and craziness are all very similar to me too. When he gets hard to handle and I take a step back, I see myself acting like that as a child and it’s a very trippy time warp for me.

One weekend, I had to watch all three kids while my wife went out. It is always chaotic when that happens because I really don’t like to use things like tv for a crutch to get through the time when I’m 1 on 3 (or 1 on 4 if you count our huge bernadoodle). My 4 year old son kept coming over to the baby and touching his face. I had to keep reminding him to not do it and every time he would come back and get bolder and bolder by laughing…and touching the baby’s face. It kept happing that I ended up nudging him away one time and he ended up crawling away and hitting his cars with what he was holding.

I wasn’t sure whether his behavior was from me nudging him, but it was a quick reality check to let me son know that I love him (and to explain why it’s important not to touch the baby’s face). I picked him up and cuddled him while I told him that I loved him and his baby brother a lot. I also told him that germs from our hands can easily get the baby sick if we are touching the baby’s face. We want to protect the baby and that’s the best way we can as far as trying to keep the baby from getting sick.

My 4 year old son understood and ran away. He then came back and I thought he was going to touch the baby’s face again. He ended up bringing his hand to the baby’s hairline and touching that area (which technically wasn’t touching his face). I paused because not only did he understand and process what I was saying, he calculated exactly what to do to test the boundaries. He was on the boundary that I set and toeing the line. I couldn’t be mad at him because he technically was following the rules. He also came by shortly after and put his face on…you guessed it…the baby’s hairline.

Again, that is something that I have done and continue to do - push and test boundaries. My son is already doing that and sometimes it frustrates me, but mostly it makes me smile (at least on the inside when I can’t show it) because he is so much like me. I’m convinced some things are just genetic or innate. This trait is one of those things!