I am Dadzilla

Lyla got a bath tonight.

In other news, if I've had several positive interactions with a person regarding Lyla, then I don't usually freak out if one interaction is negative. But if negativity occurs and there isn't a stockpile of positivity to fall back on, then I start thinking some pretty mean thoughts.

So anyway, this woman at daycare with a hula-hoop stomach and no fashion sense pissed me off today.

I walked in and saw Lyla standing in the playroom common area with the other toddlers. She was sobbing. I picked her up and turned to the adult in the room and said, "What happened?"

And Hula-Hoop replied, "The transition to the toddler room is tough for kids."

"So Lyla just randomly started sobbing? What set her off?"

"It gets easier." She said this next part slowly so I'd understand. "It's a developmental stage."

I couldn't help myself: "Unprovoked sobbing is a developmental stage?"

Her neck tightened slightly. She couldn't think of any other platitudes to share.

I walked with the now-sniffling Lyla into the infant room to get her jacket. I explained to the teachers in there that she had been sobbing and no one could tell me why.

"Oh, well here's what happened," said one of Lyla's infant teachers. "Karlie's mom just walked through the play area with Karlie's car seat, and Lyla wanted to follow her in here."

I smiled, relieved. "That makes complete sense."

See, Lyla loves all the infants' mamas and dadas, and she is accustomed to watching while they pack up their kids. Naturally it didn't make sense to her why she had to stay in the toddler play area when she wanted to go "help" Karlie's mama. This kind of sobbing doesn't bother me at all because learning you can't go wherever you want whenever you want is an important lesson that doesn't feel good.

So back to Hula-Hoop. Maybe this makes me Dadzilla, but if I walk in on you with my sobbing daughter, you better be able to tell me exactly why she's sobbing. Otherwise you will enter that place in my neck that stores tension, and to release that tension I will need to write about you and call you names.