Kids are Wack-o

As a teacher, I've encountered strange children over the years. I had one third-grader who behaved like a dog, even going so far as to have the other students pet him. Another student talked endlessly about "Bionicles," a toy whose characters have names so bizarre that half the time I though he was speaking a different language. The bottom line is, kids are eccentric. The degree of eccentricity varies from child to child, but it always rears its head sooner or later.

Toddlers are among the strangest creatures on the planet. Because they are still trying to make sense of the world around them, they are constantly exploring with their senses (mostly touch and taste!). Objects are fascinating to them, and they develop fixations with certain things. When Peter was a young boy, he was obsessed with vacuum cleaners. He didn't want to clean, he wanted to fly to the moon. Peter would "plug" the vacuum into the sofa cushions and pretend that it was a rocketship. Perhaps this anecdote is a good example of why parents do not rush their toddlers straight to the funny farm. Imagination sparks these strange behaviors. The act of make-believe can make an adult seem "delusional," but it makes a child seem "creative."

For a while, Daniel was obsessed with the Dustbuster. He would push it around the floor and spazz out with excitement when someone turned it on. He was also very fond of measuring spoons at one time. I bought him as many colorful plastic sets as I could find. These days, Daniel is less fixated on objects. He likes to carry out certain actions, some of which could certainly qualify as strange and unusual. One of his favorite activities is to explore inside the refrigerator (not very energy efficient, I know). As soon as he hears the door open, he comes running from any room in the house. He likes to take the condiments off the door shelf and line them up on the kitchen floor. He's particularly drawn to the hot sauce and the jelly. Lately, he's been climbing into the fridge.


He hasn't yet figured out how to get down, so this scenario usually ends in him crying out in fear. Today, he removed a bottle of salad dressing and ran around with it for at least 15 minutes. Then he found my Ugg boots and dropped the bottle into one of them (with the lid on, thank goodness). Crazy, right? Later on, I found him sitting in a drawer of appliance manuals in the kitchen. Sure, it was low to the ground, but what could have possessed him to climb in there? I should probably write down all of the bizarre things Daniel does on a daily basis, because it's difficult to remember so many. For now, I will continue to observe these strange behaviors and laugh to myself about what a "creative" child I have.