Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Equilibrium v. Disequilibrium

I heard somewhere of a theory of children going through ebbs and flows of equilibrium (settled, easy going, pleasant) v. disequilibrium (where they are more unsettled, push boundaries, more difficult). Usually, these ebbs and flows correspond with a child's whole-birthday and their half-birthday.

I've thought a lot of this theory lately. Owen has been just so....pleasant lately. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but I feel like we just fought so many battles together this last fall between potty training, going to bed, listening, etc. And so, it surprised me a few weeks ago when after I put him to bed without a fight for a few days in a row, I reflected back on how it was not only going easier in going to bed, but really, in all aspects. He is more compliant, seeks to please, responds to discipline, etc...and he just turned three and a half!

We haven't done anything else different, really, in our parenting--so it made me start thinking of this equilibrium v. disequilibrium theory again.

Has anyone else felt/seen this in their children?

1 comment:

Sam, Maria, and Kaylee said...

For Kaylee, it doesn't happen on the half birthday and stuff, but in the past couple weeks she has gotten very hard to live with. She argues with everything, and just this week has gone thru a big rebellion when it comes to potty training too. And she turns 3 in a little less than a month. We will have this for a while, and then life will calm down again.