My daughter, Wonder Girl, and I share some personality traits. She is her own person and I don’t want to insinuate anything otherwise but we have similarities. This fact amuses those around us greatly because sometimes the traits that I would like to think are endearing in myself are actually really frustrating and I’m learning this whilst mothering her.
Tenacity, I’ve always considered my tenacity to be a great strength. In my daughter it’s the reason we recently ended up locked into a stand off in the hallway over a toy broom. The broom had been wielded against her brothers as a sword. So I asked her to hand me the broom and play with something else. She then ran into the hallway, clutched the broom for dear life and swore blind that she “just wanted to sweep my room Mummy, I need to sweep my room, please”. It took five minutes, three threats, two pleads, and one count to five to eventually confiscate the broom.
Sense of humour. Wonder Girl and I both have a good sense of humour. It’s one of my favourite things about myself that I can make people laugh. Faced with a child who is constantly acting as if she’s trying out for young comedienne of the year when in public I’m now thinking perhaps I need to tone it down.
The terrier gene. My husband has compared me to a terrier, in that when I get an idea I will not leave it alone until it’s happened. I work on the theory that if I put all of my energy into convincing the world that my idea is a good one then eventually everyone will see the idea for its awesomeness. Wonder Girl has the terrier gene. She will ask me for something, if I say no she will then ask her Dad, when he inevitably says no too she will repeat the process, until she succeeds. No matter how long that takes. Despite the annoying element to this I really don’t see why, when for example you want a banana, saying “banana, banana, banana, banana” isn’t the best way to get a banana.
Overall it’s lovely to have a daughter who I understand so well. Our connection is brilliant, and I’m confident that as she grows I will be able to maintain that bond. However if she could just sometimes listen to me then I would be a very happy Mama.