A Conversation With Little Ben Bob

Sheila and I are babysitting our grandson Little Ben Bob this week.  It has been interesting.  Tonight, Sheila forgot her phone at work and had to go back to get it.  She set Ben up in his high chair, warmed his food for him and left me in charge until she got back.  So far, so good.

After a few bites and a few minutes, BB decided to play one of his favorite games, feed the doggie.  The house chihuahua, Jerry Garcia, has learned that if he hangs around the highchair, Ben will feed him.  That wouldn't be too bad if Ben didn't insist on letting the dog take the food from his hand ... the same hand he is feeding himself with.  And worse, he sometimes offers a tidbit to the dog, changes his mind and then eats it himself .... after the dog has licked it.

The first time he fed the dog this evening, I said gently but firmly, "Ben don't do that."  He looked shocked, whimpered a bit and went on eating.  A moment later, he did it again.  This time I said very firmly, "No Ben.  Don't do that."  He immediately burst into tears and kept crying for about five minutes.  He would look at the dog, look at his food, look at me and then begin crying again. He went through several rounds of this.  If I ignored him and looked away, he quit crying.  If I tried to talk to him he would look at the dog, look at his food and then cry at me. He seemed to be saying, "I WANT TO FEED THE DOG."

After the first three or four rounds of this, I became a little concerned.  But, he was breathing OK, was the right temp to the touch, smelled OK and didn't seem to be in any kind of discomfort other than emotional. It seemed to me that he was just unhappy that I had interrupted his favorite supper time game.

So, I said aloud, "Fine Bud.  I've got more patience than you've got energy to cry."  I then proceeded to let him go.  He would whimper, look at the dog, look at the food, look at me and then do it all over again.  He would stop for a while but as soon as I looked at him, it would start all over.  He did that on and off for about half an hour.

About that time, his Mom called.  After she chewed me out for a while for letting him cry, I put her on speaker phone to talk to Ben.  He immediately smiled his biggest smile, watched the phone in rapt fascination and became a very happy baby.  She spoke for just a few moments but that was all it took.  His mood was over.  He then finished his supper and proceeded to be his normal, happy baby, self.

I guess I am old school.  We believed that baby's were little people.  If they did something dangerous or harmful you stopped them and warned them not to do it again.  If the baby decided to cry about it, you made sure there was nothing else wrong and then let them cry until they got tired of crying.  I guess there are more modern methods these days.