Ceci n’est pas ma maison.
Okay, maybe a bit of an obscure reference there, but lately my conversations with my daughter have taken on the tone of a Surrealist, maybe even Dadaist, painting. Like this one, by Magritte:
“This is not my house!” “It is not light (in broad daylight)!” “You are not Mommy!” “You can’t say ‘no’!” and so on, and so on. She negates almost everything Daddy and I say, and a whole host of incontravertable facts about the world around her. About half the time I gently reassure her that yes, it is indeed so. The other half of the time I play along, i.e., “Okay, if we are not walking, what are we doing? Flying? Scuba-diving?”
I’m certain this is normal 2-year-old behaviour, but it does put me in mind of a Nova documentary I saw once, called Secrets of the Mind. In it, we were introduced to a man named David Silvera who, although he recognized his parents’ faces and voices, could not acknowledge that they were really his parents, because the part of his brain that governed his emotional attachment to things was not working right. It’s a very rare condition called the Capgras Delusion. He saw that they were identical, but since nothing clicked emotionally when he saw them, he thought they were imposters! “You are not my parents!”
So, in order to get through this phase of hyper-negativity, I’ll have to put the Talking Heads’ song, “Once in a Lifetime” on repeat-play in my head… “You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house!”
Anonymous said,
December 31, 1969 @ 4:00 pm
gailn said,
January 5, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
The program that I saw that on was called “Secrets of the Mind”. I first saw it in a hotel room with you in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I was so intrigued by it that I ordered it when I got home. Larry and I watched it again a couple of months ago. I am fascinated that Aurora is doing this. Is she unique? Do other 2 year olds do this?
Lisa said,
January 5, 2010 @ 8:34 pm
Sorry about the incorrect title for the program. Even though our days in Santa Fe were filled with wonderful sights and experiences, I remember watching a lot of TV, too. I remember we saw The Patriot and an episode of Dark Angel, too! I’m fixing the title on the blog post now.
I’ve read that toddlers are constantly testing everything. Is x true? Is it always true? Is it true when I do y? Is it true when Mommy’s not watching? and so on. Probably this is Aurora’s way of testing the world and how we describe it.
Jeffrey K Seitelman said,
January 6, 2010 @ 2:34 pm
You Dada ist you. If a painting of a pipe isn't a pipe; and a painting of a pipe isn't your house, what is your house?
Lisa Wells said,
January 7, 2010 @ 8:24 am
Ask Aurora. She's Little Miss Contrary these days.
David said,
January 7, 2010 @ 8:57 am
Or she’s a pathological liar.