Question

April 2006

Sensitive Jake & Mischievous Camden

In case you didn't know, I have two boys.  Okay, I realize that you did already know.  But you might not know just how different my two boys really are.  So I'll tell you.  They're very different. And in case you don't believe me, here's an example:

This morning I was at the end of my rope.  Some people I spend  a lot of time with (those people may or may not be my children...) were having a lot of trouble listening.  By the time we piled into the car to take Camden to preschool, I had had it.  And I started in on a lecture.  Now, I'm not a lecturer.  I honestly think this was the first - maybe second - time in my tenure as a mother that I've actually gone off in such a fashion.  So I'm not totally confident in my technique, but I think I was doing a pretty good job, considering.

And here is where it gets good...  Jake started crying.  Big crocodile tears.  He was really sad and sorry.  (And of course I started feeling pretty guilty.)  Camden, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the lecture.  Or feel sad.  Or sorry.  Instead, he noticed the funny bird flying around outside, that he had forgotten his sunglasses (why he needed them on this rainy day I'll never know), and everything else EXCEPT for Mommy's lecture.  (And I didn't feel the least bit guilty, by the way.)

So my question is this: How can two little people, born to and raised by the same parents, treated the same, and who spend all their time together (and are best friends too!), be SO different?  And how does the mommy of both little people teach them BOTH to behave?

P.S. Everyone felt better by the time we got to the school.  That one-minute drive did us all a world of good.