Before Sophie was born, Betsy and I came up with a new game to play – My Child / Your Child. It’s such a fun game, the whole family can play!
My Child / Your Child requires that you notice some aspect of the child, and determine which person that aspect comes from (if you believe in the whole nature versus nurture thing). For example, Betsy would say, “Blond hair – My Child” or “Brown Eyes, Your Child”. See how easy that is?
What makes the game fun is when you notice something that you’re not too happy with in your little darling – this immediately becomes the best part of MCYC – it’s obvious that the bad things are “Your Child”, while what makes her such an angel is because she’s “My Child”.
Let’s look at a few recent rounds of the game:
Betsy: “Jumping on the couch – Your Child, Outgoing personality – My Child”
Neal: “Bedtime requirement that everything is just so – Your Child, Bright personality in the morning – My Child”
A few rules:
- You have to be ready to justify your call on MCYC – it’s not like calling Shotgun to get the front seat. I certainly could never say, “Ability to climb up any surface known to man – Your Child”, nor could Betsy say, “Stubborness bordering on fascism – Your Child”. It has to match the personality of the parent!
- You can’t call a personality feature twice, but you can call new and revealing aspects of that wonderous personality. Betsy called YC on Sophie jumping in the bed, not one week after calling YC on Sophie jumping on the sofa. I called YC on Sophie’s repetition of “I do it myself!” even when the “doing” is dangerous and impossible to manage.
It’s gotten to the point now where we don’t even call MCYC, we just look and point, with that “I can’t believe this trait of yours has been placed into out child!” look that only a spouse can deliver.
Maggie is just now starting to be “in play”, with my first call being, “Extremely picky about her bottle temperature, blanket wrapping, position holding…gotta be Your Child”.
Oops, gotta run – that Maggie is waking up at 11PM – couldn’t be My Child.