How To Tame a Lion

Duncan roars. That's right, roars.
I am not sure if I can pinpoint when it started. I am pretty sure that it started with Halloween. Duncan was a lion for his first Halloween costume. We would say "roar like a lion, ducky", and he would. Only it was in a very shy, and quiet little voice and often followed by covering his mouth and giggling. It progressed with the movie The Jungle Book. From there it was a game with daddy... "Duncan, show me your Big Bear Growl". Duncan would roar, Chris would roar louder and scare him, we would all laugh. After a few times I didn't find it as funny anymore. When Duncan STARTED to roar by himself I thought it was cute, but by the time the movie The Lion King was seen I was over it. By then he had learned to use his imagination, which is a wonderful thing in a two year old, unless it turns on mommy. When he started roaring AT me the game needed to come to an end. Only it hasn't... sigh*

Chris has recently joined forces in my effort to tame the lion. I think that the line was crossed when Duncan couldn't calm down around the baby, and the culprit was a lion toy. So, how do we tame the lion? Well, we haven't quite figured it out yet. I think that his lion toys are going to have to go away for a while though. I am sure that his horse toys will rejoice, as they are probably as tired of being eaten by lions as I am of scolding and trying to redirect. I thought I had a pretty good handle on it at the begining of the week. I would explain that roaring is mean and hurts feelings. Duncan would quiet down and apologize. It would last for quite a while, only starting again when "triggered" (usually by sibling jealousy). However, my confidence in our progress was stamped down the other day.

We met Chris at the commisary after work to get some groceries. I had Duncan in the cool race car cart, and Chris had Millie in her carseat in a regular cart. As Duncan and I vroomed to the next item on our list little Millie started to fuss. A lady in the aisle stopped next to us to ask how far apart the kids were. As we walked she reflected on her own children at those ages. She had children 18 months apart and we both chuckled as Duncan added items to the cart and she stated that her kids used to do the same thing. When we were leaving the last aisle of our shopping we met her cart again. Duncan recognized her from our earlier conversation and waved. The lady smiled and waved back while turning to us to say goodbye and have a nice day. As she turned, Duncan roared at her! It came out of nowhere. What the woman smiled and said "I had a problem teaching my boy manners when they were that close together too". The words stuck with me for some reason. My child has horrible manners. It is a sad realization for any parent to come to. I know that it isn't completely true. Duncan is only two, after all. It is, however, something to work on.

I set out yesterday to do just that. Work on teaching manners. Today some of the lessons have set in a little. We read Where The Wild Things Are and talked about each page as we went. Duncan still roars, but he thinks about it a little more every time. Today I watched the debate he had with himself during his frustration. He came up to me, lion in hand and ready to roar in excitment, but stopped short. He looked at his lion toy and told it to be nice. Then turned on his heels and jumped away from me laughing. Could this be progress again? One can only hope. All I can do is keep trying and explain to those that are roared at... I am still trying to tame my lion.