The Mederos

Terrible Threes

By Shawn Medero

Published July 25, 2009

Martin will turn three shortly and we seem to have hit upon what I imagine folks refer to as the “terrible twos”. I’ve also been given uplifting advice such as “two wasn’t nearly as bad as three… oh and wait till they get to four.”

In keeping with the theme of Maritn’s use of language, I thought would survey his top ten most commonly used language constructions for conveying frustration:

1. “BAH!”
2. “I don’t like that plan.” or “That is not my plan.”
3. “What is going on with you guys?” (One of many phrases that Martin has heard from one of his parents and turned around to use against us.)
4. “I’m very very mad!”
5. “Go Away!” (Usually followed by, “I need my space.”)
6. “I wanted to be FIRST. Hmph!”
7. “But I can do it ALL. BY. MYSEEEELLFFF.”
8. Hitting the nearest person, animal or object.
9. “You did [X] and I do not like that because I do not like [X].”
10. (random sniffing and grunts to convey a mixture of anger & saddness)

Several of these are often used in combination and the order is somewhat random though “BAH!” tends to come first.

I’m not suggesting that any of these are unique to our child and in fact many of the key terms used, particularly “space” and “plan”, come from his preschool’s lexicon.