I relate to my two-year-old niece; probably more than many adults. My parents say I acted like a teenager when I was two, and I think when I hit my teenage years I acted like/experienced what it is like to be a two-year-old. We were all in Provo at Aaron and Maren's for Scotty's baby blessing and we were heading out to church, but Annie didn't have her shoes. So I was telling her to go find them and many of the other adults in the room were telling her the same thing. She told me that her shoes were in her room, so I told her to go get them, while she was trying to say that the door to her room was closed and she couldn't open it. She couldn't quite get the words out to explain why she wasn't doing it and the whole room seemed to be pushing and pressuring her to do what she was told. So she threw a little tantrum... (which I have done lots of times, many of which when I was over the age of thirteen).
Tantrums aside, I realized after that I knew exactly how she felt in that moment when she couldn't communicate and nobody was listening and the pressure from them all just made it exponentially harder to say what she was trying to say and her mind and emotions couldn't handle it so she blew up!
Yep, I know exactly what that's like. In some ways I'm grateful to have gone through the terrible-twos as a teenager because I can remember it and was able to observe myself and learn what was happening that made it so difficult just to function in an emotionally-stable manner. I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, it will help me be a better mother someday. Most women probably don't need to have been a two-year-old-like-being while in jr high and high school in order to relate to their children and teach them, but maybe I did. And now when I do have kids, they may just be able to squeak by with a semi-good upbringing.
