The Crying Contest

Anyone with at least two kids has more than likely experienced the “crying contest”. More often than not, one or both of the kids start crying. When one cries you can pick them up and console them, rock them, feed them, or whatever they need to help them feel better. Now when they both cry, that is a challenge. I find myself asking, who really needs some comfort and who is just crying to cry? There have been a few times where I couldn’t decide, so I tried and comfort them both. I picked up our baby girl, who is 17 pounds at 5 months old, and try to pick up/drag Luke, who is 27 pounds at 28 months, and make my way over to the rocker/recliner. Then I have to put baby girl on the floor, so of course she starts crying again, and sit in the rocker/recliner and pick up Luke and put him on my lap. Then, I have to elbow him back (which makes him cry harder) so I can bend and get baby girl off the floor. Then for a few blessed minutes all is right in the world, no one is screaming. Then of course eventually Luke will start crying again, trying to take out my eardrums. Then after he cries a while, baby girl (who can’t be out-done by her big brother) starts crying as well. If I rock enough all is quiet again.


Then sometimes, one starts crying so the other one starts crying. It is like a sympathy cry or something; do they really need to do that? I can handle the crying most days. But, if Luke cries for too long I can only handle so much. I don’t know if it is because he is a boy or because he is 2 years old, but his cry is SO loud. When it gets to be too much, I put him in the hallway and shut the doors and put up the gate. What is amazing is I place him all the way at the end of the hall, and then within about 10 minutes he has somehow worked his way to the front of the hall. It’s like he knows he’s getting to me, so he wants to make sure I can still hear his crying. I don’t get it.