I became an uncle just over 18 months ago. Little one has now grown to the point he runs and speaks words. It is very adorable and all that of course, but its also fascinating to see how very stereotypically he is developing.
One of his first words and concepts is "tractor". Now he doesnt quite fully grasp the concept, so a lot of things that are not tractors become "trakto", but hes learning. Hes also learned car, and anything with flashing lights on it is a "ba-bu"
It really started to get funny in the last few weeks, grandpa had shown him tractors on his phone earlier one day, and not only did he demand i pull up "trakto" on mine, he would grab my thumb and jab it into the screen if i wasnt quick enough pulling up tractor videos.
Long winded way of saying, having seen how a boy child of less than two will gravitate instantly to objects like tractors has made me hate the trooning of children even more on a personal level.
I was talking to my mother about that stage not but a few weeks ago—with a nephew getting close to that. She still doesn’t get it. I was pretty much never into the bad things that you’d think a teen would be up to drinking, smoking, banging, sneaking out. Yet, I was constantly in trouble for some word, tone, or body language had absolutely no idea I was doing until I was already in trouble. Good for at least trying to let him know you have to not do this but I understand you probably didn’t mean to. That would have gone a long way making me not spend those years feeling like the whole world hated me. Especially the early teen years.
I've seen it several kids. They're big talk and love life, and these years make them so quiet and sullen at life.