Monday, September 18, 2006

The Incredible Sulk


My youngest son likes to sulk.
He sulks 2 or 3 times within the hour whenever I say the words 'NO' and 'DON'T' and whenever he does not get his way and of course, for other reasons only known to him alone. For the record, my youngest is 2 and he's trying to live up to the term 'Terrible Two' that people always associate with two year olds like him. All the pics below were taken on Saturday (16/9/06) and when he's older, I hope he'll be able to look at these pics and see the humour of it all, just like how my husband and I find his behaviour now.


In the morning, after getting ready to go out - all prepared except for his socks and shoes, I found him in the kitchen sulking about something or other that I honestly can't remember now, although I did manage to talk him out of it.

We went out and decided to go and lunch at Nandos (some of its branches here are halal, but NOT all) but the restaurant does not open until noon so we decided to go to the nearby shops for some window shopping while waiting for the doors to open. And guess what my youngest did again there, in the middle of the shop floor?


And again in a different aisle.

And then one more time.

At last the restaurant was open for lunch. The place was nice, with ambience and nice deco and my boys were behaving themselves until suddenly..

While waiting for the food, he found something else to sulk about. However, he didn't throw himself onto the floor this time - just squatted by his chair to sulk quietly until the food came.



And indeed when the food came he became a good boy once again - eating his food until most of it was gone and he was happy again. I was not surprised if the reason that he sulked before lunch was really because he was hungry.


But then we went to Tesco's to do our weekly grocery shopping and there he was in the trolley, sulking again!



And again!


And then on our way back home, in the car, on his car seat, there he goes!

Back home, some time later while I was cooking for the family's dinner and my husband and our eldest were playing footie in our backyard, there he was again sulking behing the sliding doors - because he tried playing and he couldn't get the ball. Not that the other players didn't want to pass the ball to him, but as he started to sulk even when he missed a pass - which of course, he has only himself to blame - they stopped actually passing the ball to him and simply asked him to 'join' the kicking and shuffling of the ball around the yard. But he refused and went to sulk behind the glass doors instead.



And then my husband had to come and coax him to come out and play, to join in.


And so they had to change into a game of catch instead just to include the baby in the family. And Abang was such a sport too, not 'sulking' like his baby brother just because he wants to play footie and not catch.


Only then was the 'baby' happy...

5 comments:

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

;) you're lucky dear, your son's terrible two phase does not include screaming and kicking on top of the sulking. haha

my 2yo does all three! ;)

Halwafy said...

Hehe..yes, I am lucky, I realise that. I mean, I really do think he looks funny lying prone in the middle of the shopping mall, pouting and ignoring everyone.

I bet if he were to kick and scream at the same time, it would not be as funny though..

Anonymous said...

hahaha k ibah they are so cute! hamzah must be a little thinker. i prefer that to tantrums!! and you have a lovely home. bilalah nak turun london ni. last year hardly had any holidays at all. this year final year, and most of the time and money is spent on hubby.

Halwafy said...

Aishah, do come over whenever you are free and able to do so..raya celebrate kat mana?

jujuqtpie said...

I think Mika has stopped screaming. I don't recall hearing him scream lately. I usually put him in a spot, any spot and say it's a spot for naughty boys and I leave him to sulk there. My son has not thrown himself on the floor yet, though he's been through a few phases already. Before the screaming, he'd just cry. Not loudly, more like sobs and repeat what he wants,e.g.: "I want the red fire truck" again and again and again. Even if I was successful at distracting him, it would only be for a short while, and he'd start crying again. And recently, he started screaming. That was when I put in corners and ignore him until he talks nicely. So what do you do when he sulks? I can just imagine Mika goimg through this phase; God forbid though! How do you contain it? Do you show him the photos of his misbehaviour? How does he react to that?
Inez used to bawl before to get her way especially whenever it was time to leave the playground. It's so difficult to get them to leave and Inez used to cry. We told her she was embarrassing herself and we simply walked away, hid behind a tree or something and watched her next move. Hah, at first it was like she was rooted there but finally when nobody came back after some minutes, she followed us but she was still crying. Later, we made a ritual out of leaving the park, "Bye bye swings, bye bye birds in the sky, bye bye leaves on the trees, bye bye every thing, see you tomorrow", then only it was okay to go home without someone crying. Phew, thank God that's over too.