Sunday and Eerie in Book Five: Working Through the Maze 2018

Sunday was spent with family. My parents remodeled their deck and today was the first decent day of weather to give it a go.

It was mostly a nothing day… Wife taking the opportunity for a new audience (my mother) to complain at for hours about life. Bro taking work calls most of the day. SIL doting on niece. Dad trying to figure out how to watch television while being harassed by SIL because Dad watching TV meant Niece would get “too much screen time.” Pretty average.

But there were moments that… were startling. Uncomfortable, even. My niece turns 5 in September. Many times… she reminded me way too much of my wife.

First Moment:
The first event that screamed “This is your wife” was when we were getting ready to go to the park. Bro said, “We’re going to the park, J. Get some shoes on.” Niece announced proudly, “I’m going to wear my crocs!” But then she could not find her crocs. Everything had to stop. She would not accept any substitutes. We found her tennis shoes, she would not wear them… she wanted her crocs. She did not know where her crocs were. However, this was of little consequence as she would not do anything until her crocs were found. Instead of looking for her crocs herself, Bro started looking and could not find them. He was telling her to get some shoes on and we’ll find the crocs when we came back from the park. Niece was not having it. She wanted her crocs, nothing would do instead, and the crocs needed to be found. Finally… her behavior got to be… too eerie for me. I got up, went upstairs (where she had been napping earlier), instantly found her crocs, and brought them to her. She took the shoes from me and had to be reminded to say Thank You.

The whole thing was actually really creepy for me because… my wife, who turns 38 in June, acts exactly like that. I can’t tell you how many times we needed to go somewhere or do something and she wanted something to be exactly a certain way, or find exactly the specific thing.... and the world had to stop on its axis until this thing was done her way or found. Usually by me. Usually without a “thank you.” It was… startling.

After that, I started watching very closely. Noting the varying ways the behavior of this 4 year old was identical to the behavior of this 37 year old.
Whenever the TV is on, the eyes are affixed entirely. Shared trait.
Whenever the subject is playing with a tablet, cell phone, or personal electronic device… they are entirely absorbed to the exclusion of anything else. Shared trait.
Whenever the subject is playing with a tablet, cell phone, or personal electronic device and they are asked or required to put it down, it results in complaining and frustration. Shared trait.
Unlikely to interact with me or pay attention to me, even to the point of openly ignoring me when I speak, unless they want something or need something. Shared trait.

Now… I know I’ve referenced my wife as an Adult Toddler before… but to actually have a “toddler” to compare it to? And see that behavior perfectly mirrored… even to the point of refusing a food plate from her parents because she was watching TV and wanted to do something else afterwards(!!)… it was a bit unnerving!