Bad Mommy

I think I need to start a "Bad Mommy" segment to this blog (inspired by the "Bad Parent" section of the Daily Babble magazine found at http://www.babble.com/ ...let's give credit where credit is due).

In it I can whisper secrets I can never tell my daughter, or the ones I hope Anonybabe never tells anyone but her therapist, or maybe her significant other in a moment of weepy vulnerability.

My first confession is this: the tonality of my daughter's voice is driving me crazy. She ends almost every word she says on the same high questioning note, particularly when she's demanding something. "Coo-keeee? Coo-keeee? Coo-keeee? Ma-maaa? Coo-keeee?" was one I heard a lot Saturday. She'll keep repeating her phrases, louder and louder, until I repeat them back to her, acknowledging that she said them. Here's a sample conversation:

Me, to Anonyhub: So, I was talking to...

Anonybabe: wa? guuuuuuuuh?

Me, to Anonyhub: ....Sarah about Obama's.....

Anonybabe: Wa? Guuuuuuuuh?

Me to Anonyhub: ....first cabinet picks......

Anonybabe: WA? GUUUUUUUH?

Anonyhub, from the other room: What? I can't hear you over Anonybabe.

Me, to Anonybabe: We're not going to watch anything right now, Anonybabe.

Anonybabe: WA? GUUUUUUUH?

Me, to Anonybabe: No, we're not going to watch any more tv today, baby girl; we're going to play.

Anonybabe: Noooo? No pay. Waaa? GUUUUUUH?

Me, to Anonybabe: What are you saying? You want to watch Grover?

Anonybabe: Yea! Yea mama, Okay. Okay, mama. Wa guh. Okay, mama.

Me: Fine.

Naive me. I thought that if I gave my baby enough attention she wouldn't clamour for it so much. Little did (or do) I know the vortex of need that Anonyhub and I created on that fateful July 4th weekend a couple of years ago.

So my confession is not that I try to fill my daughter's aching need for attention with television. I'm over that. Do it all the time. My confession is that at the moment I often hate the sound of her voice. It was all I could do to keep myself from mocking it the other day.

Bad mommy.