Smart Two Year Olds are a Wonderful Problem

Nathan started school this fall. His class meets on Tuesday/ Thursday and has 8 students under two in it. Nathan is the oldest in the class and the first two days of class all went well. The third day Nathan was coming down with a cold and so he cried until they called me to pick him up 45min into class. That day I just stayed there with him encouraging him to participate and trying to be in the way as little as possible. The next class he was still not feeling well, the cold lead to an ear infection but we were on antibiotics, so I went with him to school with the intention of staying the whole time so that he wouldn't just be left there not feeling well but also so we wouldn't get out of the habit of going to school. That Wednesday night he had trouble in his class at church and they went and got Daniel out of his class. On Thursday they called me because, once again, he wouldn't quit crying. On Sunday when we took him to his bible class and he once again started crying we knew we had a problem. The next Tuesday the pattern repeated its self again and I had had enough.
Nathan has never been a clingy cuddly child. He has little problem with strangers or strange places. Give him a minuet and some interesting toys and he would be fine anywhere. This child calling for Mommy seemed totally foreign to me. That is when it struck me, I have a very intelligent son who likes to have things his own may and he had discovered... THE POWER OF TEARS! Two year olds by nature are very manipulative, it is why they survive to adulthood, and Nathan was drunk with power but mommys, though they may be slow, are not dumb and I was onto his shenanigans.
I talked to his teacher and explained what I thought was going on and she and I agreed that we would refuse to cater to the tears for one week and then see how he was doing. Daniel and I also got his Sunday and Wednesday night teachers on board for a full fledged group effort. It only took Nathan moments to feel the difference when I dropped him off. There was no "poor baby" from me or the teachers it was all "I'm sorry, but you are fine." He has not had that kind of trouble in class since then. He has better days than others but the crying for longer than it takes to realize that Mommy is not coming back has quit.
Mommy 1 Nathan 90 (these numbers were estimated and will not hold up in a court of law, Nathan's score is probably higher)

Maybe Nathan will be a lawyer when he grows up.