I am ashamed

I am ashamed of a recently revealed secret within my family. No, not revealed, discovered. Discovered by me and kept secret for an unknown period of time. It has to do with my eldest child: my three and a half year old son.

I could handle the fact that my heir is a red head (in fact I think it’s kind of cute). I could handle the fact that he is left handed, something we realised very early on given his one handed clapping ability, which he did with his left hand. I could handle the fact that he is an early riser. And I can even handle the surreal experience of having to discipline him for annoying habits he has most likely picked up from me.

But I cannot handle the fact that he is a scruncher, not a folder. I do not need to go into any further details about this. If you don’t know what I am talking about then feel free to ignore this post, and kindly take your ignorance and naivety someplace else. This blog probably isn’t for you anyway.

If you do know what I am talking about and you are unsympathetic, or dare I say it, proud of him, then “Get thee behind me Satan”, for your foolish and unhygienic ways.

Is it too much to ask for? That a son would follow his father in this area of life? It’s not like I’m asking him to make an origami crane to get the paperwork done, just a simply once or twice over to keep an ordered rectangular shape.

What’s worse is that I’ve found the root cause of this abomination. After chiding him a few times he said, “It’s ok. Daddy folds, Mummy scrunches”.

We never discussed this in marriage preparation, let alone how we would raise our children. How are we to deal with such different belief systems?

Where to from here? Any suggestions?