fine line between love and scary

We have two cats. One of them is super friendly and eats up attention of any kind. So we have to keep an eye on him because he doesn't think to do obvious things like run away. 

Along with this, my toddler has hit that age where he occassionally says and does things that make me raise my eyebrows.

Not in a curious "well that certainly is peculiar" raised eyebrow way. More of a "holy crap, my child is like Dexter" total shock way. Which is immediately followed by intense worry of what I did wrong that turned him into a budding sociopath.  

Last week it went like this:

He notices kitty. 

 

He communicates his feelings.

He communicates them harder.

I use the word that every parent with a pet knows well. 

Then things get weird.

So I jump in.

The cat, meanwhile, is still purring as I pry off the toddler boa constrictor.    

Do your kids ever dance that fine line between love and, um, scary? Or love too much?

Comments

[Cyndi Marcell Whitworth]

YES! I vent - errr post about this on FB to anyone that will listen almost daily. So glad I am not alone in my struggles :D aaah my poor dogs

[Luna]

Yes... I have two dogs and my toddler (almost 2) just loves to "pet" the dogs, but his version of petting involves very hard smacks to their backs (hooray for 75lb beasts of dogs) and walking on their faces while laughing. It's... a bit frightening sometimes. I fear they're someday going to eat his face off because of this. lol

[Michael]

My 2 year old likes to 'ride' the kitty. Petting is also favorite, but his petting involves grabbing large handfuls of fur/tail/skin and pulling.

[Vickie]

Oh yes i am going through this with my 3 year old, we have a Ragdoll cat that he "loves too much"(takes his frustration out on) So glad i am not the only one HAHAHAHA. Oh dear LOL

[Valerie Hunter]

This one literally made me tear up, I was laughing so hard. =) thank you for brightening our days EVERY day!

[Jessica]

Ahahahaha....this is my 2 yr old son with our dog. All I can do is tell the dog what a good girl she is as this boy torments her.....

[Jen]

Of Mice and Men? "Gonna get some rabbits, George"

[L]

You forgot the chasing part! The chasing part is really scary, too!

[Kristin]

I hardly ever laugh out loud at something I read, but I laughed at this one. Thanks for the entertainment.

[Amanda]

Yes, but it's not kitty, it's his 5 month old brother. LOL! Stop squeezing your brothers arms and legs! ;)

[Tara]

LMAO!! We also have to cats one that is like yours and loves attention of any kind and one that will take a swat and anything that moves near it. My kids ages 5, 3 and 2 are the same way with them one min they are so loving towards them makes you belive you are doing a great job and the next min they are in full sqeeze attack mode! My one cat will be purring but meowing this high pitched squshed meow at the same time it is quite comical

[Jessica Smith]

And again, I die laughing. LOL. This is my "almost" 2 year old, every.single.day. with our cats. Poor things.

[JaciDoula]

I get "Kitty! KICK!!" a lot :S

[Misty]

My child seems to pick up our scary language, and it makes me wonder how I sound when I speak to my dog. She'll just randomly start yelling at the dog "STOP BARKING!!" "COME HERE!!" "DARCY, SIT!!" "THAT'S ENOUGH DARCY!!" Hmmm, maybe I need to integrate some positive discipline into our dog's life.

[Shannon]

Just this morning I caught my 2-year-old giggling and trying to strain the cat between our bedroom door and the baby gate. Our cat sounds very similar to yours: loves the baby, to his peril...

[Mattie]

Yes! My 2 yo likes to try and ride our beagle like a horse. He has now decided to chase our dog with his plastic golf clubs around the house. When he hugs him, it pretty much looks like your child and the cat. (he also does this with his 5 week old brother.)

[Koo]

Yup, I have a 13 month old who isn't afraid of anything. At the moment shes learnt where eyes and noses are and shes anything but gentle. My poor cats and dogs are constantly getting their eyes poked or gentle stroking always turns into love overload which generally ends up with someone crying :/

[Ashley]

My daughter has recently discovered that the sticks used for decoration in the vase are great for poking or hitting the kitty's... sigh, also, she is 1 and going through a hitting stage, so our one cat that is brave enough to hang around gets a fair share of abuse.

[Oliviah]

I LOVE how you manage to give your crappy drawings so much expression in their eyes! sooooo funny :)

[Cynthia Cecil]

oh boy yes i am familiar with this lol. i am just writing for the day our ferret (who seems to love the abuse) gets fed up and bites/claws the crap out of my son. I am thankful that the only animals he has exposure to are small ones because i can not worry so much about them seeking revenge and teaching him a well deserved lesson.

[Jamie]

Oh, the long suffering cats. My 3-year-old his mostly good with them, but one of my cats is a greedy-hey-you-done-with-those-pancakes-mooch, so there have been some showdowns when the kitty tries to encroach on my son's food. Mostly though, my son pets them (kinda) gently and they shockingly sit there with a look in their eyes that can only be described as a curious mix of affection, terror and uncertainty.

[Jackie]

Yes, every day with our dog! She's only about 15 pounds and our little guy is turning 3 next month. He and her are best friends, even though he abuses her daily.

[Leia]

oh yes. I have two very kind dogs who put up with tons of "abuse" from my 16 month old. I think they only really put up with it because they know he will share his food with them. If it wasn't for all the table scraps they now get I think they would never forgive me for having a child.

[Katie]

Easy Lenny. :-)

[Katie]

Easy Lenny. :-) (of mice and men)

[Jodi]

My daughter (3) grabs my younger son (12 m) around the neck and squeezes and claims, "I'm just giving him a hug." Scary!

[Lisa]

Our 4 yr old son loves to kiss our immensly-patient border collie on the snout. We think our 8 month old is trying to mimic him....but it looks more like he's grabbing the dog's jowls & pulling him closer so he can eat the dog's face.

[Elizabeth]

My son is so rough with our cat!!!!! Our cat still has his claws but he is a nice cat and it takes alot to tork him off lol and he has never attacked, but he has given the kids a nice swat to say leave me the H alone lol

[Liza]

Haha! Most memorable off the top of my head was when my 3 year old son was squeezing the dog's head and trying to stick his thumbs in its eyes. "He likes it!" he said.

[Wendy]

My Mum's cat stays with us while she is travelling and I'm sure that when he sees her get his carrier down, he hopes to be taken to the vets for a shot rather than our house, with all the toddler "love".

[Trisha Wieber]

Yes! Perfect point Jen. LOL.

[Zen]

My daughter is 9 and she expressed to me very loudly in Target the other day that she often thinks about wanting to break her own wrist ... oh man, the looks we got. She then explained that she has just always wanted to wear a cast, she thought it was kinda cool. I guess I can understand a curiosity like that, she also wants braces even though her teeth are straight (so did I as a kid, something about shiny metal in my mouth seemed appealing.)

[Sarah]

:( this kinda makes me sad...we have to put our kitty down tomorrow. She is old and sick. But my 15 month old tries to ride the kitty anyway. She also loves to pet the kitty and 'love' on the kitty. This involves putting her head on the kitty and saying "awe".

[Pam]

We recently intervened between our 8 month old and his attempt to teeth on our dog's leg. I had worried so much about the dog biting the baby.. I forgot that it could work the other way!

[Melanie]

oh my, this is my preschooler to a T! I thought that it would get better as she got older, but it seems to have gotten worse because now she is stronger. But then she'll be super cute and lay baby bottles in their paws while their sleeping. :)

[Delia]

I probably own the dumbest, most docile, wuss of a dog in the world. He is an 85 pound Greyhound. He towers over the toddler and the chihuahua who both torment him relentlessly yet he does nothing. The 6 pound chihuahua steals his food and bed and he just stands there and waits his turn to have his things back. The toddler sits on him, pulls his ears and tail and plays "doctor" with him regularly! She drags him around the house by his collar and he just follows her wherever she leads him. I am always reminding her to be careful, easy, nice, gentle....sigh.

[Jessica G]

Yes. My 3 1/2 year old daughter loves my 3 1/2 month old son all too much sometimes. She likes to lay on him in order to hug him. All 33 pounds of her on top of all 17 pounds of him.

[Angela]

Yes, my now 3 year old grabbed the cat by the tail and pulled her across the hardwood floor (he was 15 months old at the time). "Look, mama...I a sucay!" Lovely. She's just starting to allow him to cuddle her...but if his hand gets too close to her tail...she bolts. LOL

[karen]

My daughter was always great with the cat, but wanted to throw her baby sister in the garbage. That was a bit worrisome at the time. She is 13 now and doesn't seem to be feeling that as much! :-)

[katie]

my daughter (22 months) *loves* our kitty. for months, i have reminded her to "be gentle with the kitty, remember you can only pet or smooch her." consequently, when she sees kitty, she states, "I WANT TO BE GENTLE WITH KITTY!!"

[Amber Dusick]

So sorry about your kitty, Sarah.

[Elizabeth]

my cat for the longest time took crap from my kid (now almost 5) i got her when i was preggo with my oldest and he would pull her tail, and pet her super hard, squish her, lay on her, you name it...he did it...the cat recently started fighting back (she is declawed) she will give my son a warning by hissing, or by batting at him, well he thinks this is now a game and wants to play with her...can't wait till they both get older...my poor cat :(

[Suzanne]

My 3 year old is the same, but with her 4 month old brother. His arm and fingers just don't bend that way!

[Erica]

My 5 yr old is that way....with everything: pets, people, toys. She will smother you with a kiss (or leave a bruise on you because she kissed/hugged/loved you too hard). She's gotten a little better over the years but she still does it on occasion.

[Delenn]

We have two cats and know EXACTLY what you mean. For some odd reason I thought it was a good idea to get a kitten when my daughter was 2 years old...I feared for his life until he got older...on the other hand, he is def the attention hog.

[rachel]

just as i finished reading this, my almost 4 year old just ran off out of the room, chasing the cat with a freshly sharpened pencil! "kitty! aaaaaaaahhhgggghhhhh!!!!!"

[BigMama]

My 2 year old (then about 18 mos) had a "loving the dog too hard moment". He swung his brawly, all-boy arm back and "pet" her... She then "loved" his face with her teeth. Yup, you guessed it... Trip to the ER, stitches right in his lip, and lots of tears. Needless to say, he has a healthy respect for her now. He only loves her gently now.... And with TONS of cautious parental supervision.

[Jessica S.]

Just last week my 17 month old was chasing the cat around, TACKLING him over and over and over again. He was bitten on his head and I had to get him on antibiotics because it got infected overnight. Ugh! My fault, not the kitty's; he couldn't help but fight back after that kind of assault! Now the baby still chases him until I yell "He's gonna bite you!!" Kids aren't very smart are they...

[b]

Hahaha.... My almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old are ths same! SIT Gypsie.... SIIIIIT! Poor dog... she was laying down... So confused!

[June]

My 1-y-o twins do the same hug-kitty pose seen in Frame 2, but then they'll turn face down and start rhythmically humping him while cackling. It's the damndest thing. Older child never did that. They also lay their faces right at the tail-body junction and I try to stop them before they burrow in.

[Emily]

My 2 yo is trying to make fish sticks out of our poor fish I'm afraid lol.

[kristy]

Our toddler kept saying over and over again, " Kick Ginger." To which we would turn and try to correct her. She never actually kicked our 10 year old beagle; she just enjoyed saying it. Not fun when company sans kids was over.

[Kelly]

LOL at "Gentle"!!!

[Sarah Richardson]

Here is the thing...I know your "love" for your cats...

I "love" my cats after kids too. And by love, I mean, can't stand. So, when my baby and toddler mess with my cats, I think it is kinda funny and kinda enjoy it. Yes, I say the obligatory "Please be gentle, please don't do xyz to the cats".

But the cats are fine, they always go back for more torture and so therefore, kinda funny.

[Carla]

My 22 month old sits on his 8 month old sister to love her and cuddle her. Scary sometimes but she seems to love it

[Susan]

We used to have a fish. But then our two-year-old wanted Fishy to sleep with him like the kitty does. The funeral was unexpectedly touching, considering there was a toilet involved.

[Janette]

We got a puppy a month after our third baby was born, so the puppy is now 5 months old. Our other two children are 3 (August) and almost 2 (October). Our 2 yo NEVER leaves this poor dog alone! Her version of petting is similar to others' - she smacks his back or his head. She hangs on to his collar and drags him around, she climbs on top of him, etc. He just takes it and gives me a look that says "PLEASE help me, mom!" lol It all kind of reminds me of that "Of Mice and Men" skit from SNL with Chris Farley... lol It is very cute, though, when she gives our dog hugs. :)

[Hope]

My four-year-old for some odd reason likes to pinch our dogs ears! It drives me crazy!! Maybe I should pinch his ears? Just a thought!

[Susannah]

One day we found my nephew's goldfish belly up in the tank. 4 year old Mattie wanted the fishy to have a bath so he jacked up the temperature of the water. Poor boiled fishy.

[Joy]

Haha, I have to share - yesterday we put DD on the phone with MIL and tell her to say "I love you!" What does my child say? "Fuck."

www.styledstitch.blogspot.com

[Shelby]

HA HA. We have this exact scenario with our 2.5 year old daughter and our two little dogs. I think the dogs tolerate her torture, I mean LOVE, because she generously allows them to eat her breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner that she purposely drops from the table. I guess it is a mutually beneficial relationship...???

[Tessa]

When my 12 yo was a toddler she loved to pick kitty up by the neck and give it a hug and forget to let go.

[Teresa]

Yes. Except it goes more like this: He runs from her and she corners him, saying "Don't worry doggy, I get scared too." Then proceeds to comfort him until he pees himself. No amount of explanation will convince her that she is the one he is scared of. (To all my animal loving friends out there, we do try to protect our 4 legged friend from the emotional trauma, to the extent that it is possible.)

[Rebecca]

Awesome post! Makes me feel more normal. My 2 year old has informed us on different occasions that he will saw the dog in half, and boil the dog. Hmmm....Dexter? yes.

[Jessica]

Yes! We have the friendliest orange tabby ever that will flop down before the 4 yo and 1 yo and just let them climb all over him, pull his ears and fur, and purr all the while. He might issue an unconvincing warning growl when they touch his tail. The kids laugh when I say "he'll scratch you", as it's never happened. He never tries to reach higher ground.

[Heather]

My 2 year old is mostly good with the pets. She sometimes uses the dog as a chair. The amazing thing is how she's figured out all the cats. There are three of extremely varying personality. One will bite anything that moves, one wants to be left alone at all times and the other is the most annoying and demanding animal on the face of the earth but he never bites or scratches. So she knows the leave the anti-social one alone, she knows exactly how to pet the biter so she doesn't get bitten. And the last one she sometimes tortures. She will drag him down the hallway by the tail like he's a wagon.

[vanessa]

Your evil toddler drawing borders on good art, despite the blog name! Perfect expression.

[Thora]

HA! I love the look on baby's face when he says "break da kitty". Gold! Both my kids do (or have done) this. But we don't have pets, so Mommy and Daddy get 'intense hugs' where they will squeeze crazy hard and start trembling with ^that look on their face.

[Amy lav]

"whaa dat?" lmfao....

[Sapphyre_au]

The good news is you can't be diagnosed as a sociopath or psychopath (both now known as Antisocial Personality Disorder) unless you are at least 18 and have been having this kind of behaviour since 15 and older...

Kids are weird. But entertaining!

[Corinne]

HAHAHAHA!

I think all toddlers have a little psycho in them.

[Silverdragon]

My older daughter is 5 and STILL does this to the poor puppy, who admittedly gets his own back with his little needly teeth! I go blue in the face yelling at both of them until I either put the puppy outside, or send Miss 5 to her room (she's old enough to know better than to squeeze the dog to death) or both! I do question my sanity about buying a puppy while on mat leave...

[Symbiote Host]

I have always sworn that toddlers are feral and the job of mothering is domestication. The comments are as hilarious as the entry today!

Our cat household has raised kittens. Recently, all of them declared that my two year old has passed the baby stage and may now be disciplined, with the gentle pressure of tooth and claw, when he crosses the line, especially with the more geriatric kitties. Amazingly, they have never left a mark, but the toddler is learning his limits with them. I still have to pry his fingers off their tails.

My last toddler had all hard toys and stick/bat/club type items banned until he was nearly done with preschool.

[Becky]

I'll never forget how my then 18 month old daughter went from gently stroking the grandparents cat to mashing the cat into the floor. It was hilarious but we told her not to smush the kitty.

[Rainyday]

My oldest does that boa constrictor trick on his little brothers neck allllll the time. The cats caught on to him long ago.

[Brenna Lamb]

I love reading your posts, thank you! I've teared up plenty of times from laughing so hard, especially when I read the baby starfish in the bed one. I have 3 kiddos 7, 5, and 3 and have 2 kitty's which they lug around like a sack of tators and the kittys love it. Mostly, and when they don't my kids are reminded that kitty's have claws ;•)

[Eric Jensen]

psychotic psy·chot·ic (sī-kŏt'ĭk)
adj.
Of, relating to, or affected by psychosis. n.
A person affected by psychosis.

psychosis psy·cho·sis (sī-kō'sĭs)
n. pl. psy·cho·ses (-sēz)
A severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning.

If you replace "severe mental disorder" with "child under the age of ten" it makes total sense.

My kids are either pretending balloons are babies or dragging the cat around the house by her tail.

[Cheryl]

My now 11yo used to hand cuff the kitty (Dad is a Police Officer) and my 3 yo likes to "kill" the kitty, (it is the same kitty!)

[MenuPlanning Mama]

It's not too often that I literally laugh out loud. My own kitty is giving me the strangest look as I wipe tears from my face. Little does he know, hahaha!

[B]

my daughter loved our pet hampster to death.

[maggiemoo]

lol! Too funny!:)

[Catherine]

That describes my dog as well. Their whole relationship changed when my daugheter started eating solid food. Our poor dog is "loved" daily, thank goodness he is a good dog.

[maggiemoo]

We got a puppy when my son was almost 3. He spent the first three months of the dog's life trying to kill it. The poor dog was thrown against a tree, rolled off a couch, tossed in the pool, dumped out of a window...the puppy got bigger and the tables turned! They now have an uneasy truce...They really are both sweet little creatures! Then again, I had to stop him from seeing if his pencil would fit in the dog's..."behind" just last week...and don't even get me started on the whole cat dynamic around here!

[maggiemoo]

Achhh! Our future generation! Why am I feeling uneasy?

[The Mommy]

Yes! Our 3 year old sometimes loves on her 4 month old baby sister a little too enthusiastically.

[Joanne]

My daughter does the same thing with one of our [two] cats, who eats up any attention. She'll say things like, "I love you, Iris," and then a few seconds later, "I sit on Iris!" I have to run to the rescue because Iris will just SIT there and take it!

[Sophie]

Thank you for illustrating this! I thought it was just my 2yr old! He does this with the cat, the dog, random children in the playground. We have a constant refrain: "nice hug. let go NOW". When he was going through a hug/biting phase, he bit the dog too. Poor dog was so surprised he didn't know what to do.

[Ellie]

My 3.5 yo son occasionally says that he'll squash his 9 mo brother 'to jelly' when he cuddles him. I put this down to telling him that if he runs into the road, a car might squash him to jelly and that would be Sad. Not sure why he threatens his baby brother with jellification, though.

[Carol Gardens]

Ha Ha ha ha....

[Simone]

This may sound strange but I kind of get it, the feeling that the love inside your body is so powerful it almost (almost) feels sadistic because it is so strong. Like with my babies I sometimes feel so much love I want to bite them (I don't!) - it's just like some urge to engulf them and consume them with my love - because the feeling is so consuming :)

[Rosalie]

I agree, I don't know how you do it but that cat has so much expression!

[Tinne from Tantrums and Tomatoes]

My cat runs away when he sees the kids, their enthousiasm scares him to death.

[sarah]

i mean... mine only does it on the daily, which is obviously normal... right? :/ about a year ago, he looked identical to miko hughes in pet sematary (i want to play with YOU!); thank God he's grown out of that... just not stalking our dog and whatnot, but this too will pass... maybe... hopefully?

[Cathy]

My near-3 yo boy adds the word Off to that same construction: Mommy, I broke my knee off! I scraped my arm off! I break sister's arm off!
Best of all is the potty training. Mommy, I break my penis off!

[the lupines]

don't you think it's the testosterone? i mean, full disclosure, i feel that way too sometimes, some little critter is soooooooo cute you just want to sqeeeeeeeeze a little too hard? maybe i'm like dexter too....

[Katrina]

My 3 year old, who was 2 at the time, decided my cat looked like a good trampoline. She dislocated my poor cats leg, and laughed about it! What an expensive trampoline that was.

My cat, who was at the time, a kitten, who we rescued from a shelter and who had been abused, strangely enough, still loves my daughter. No idea why, she also gets "strangled" daily, locked in cupboards, pushed in the pram etc.
Poor cat.

[Jaclyn]

Caitlyn LOVES our cat and likes to use her as a pillow. Luckily she doesn't want to break any of the living things in our home, but I'm pretty sure she wants to BE the kitty. Or maybe the dog. It's the only explanation why as the world's pickiest eater she still regularly tries to eat their food and drink from their water dishes. And I have to take her out of the dog's cage at least 3 times a day. I came up with a solution though, I'm getting her a taxidermied cat for Christmas.

[jes]

We just had to put our sweet cat down a couple of weeks ago. I have a 14 mo old that loved him a lot and we all miss him tons. Hugs to you! I hope today goes ok for you. It sucks.

[Laura]

Lol! If it makes you feel better, I recently found out that when my cousin was 5 months old, and I was about 3, I was stroking her hair and whispering in her ear "I'm going to KILL you!" :-O Thankfully, I turned out just fine... I'm not a serial killer, nor do I have psychopathic tendencies... I promise!

[Sabrina]

My son (with autism) has been very gentle and easy with a neighbor's baby. It went on for 5 or 6 days, with him gently holding the baby's hand, saying "baby" and smiling. Last time I let him near the baby he transitioned from smiling quietly to yelling "baby" at the top of his voice right in the baby's face. Like nose to nose. So he doesn't see the baby any more.
He's also deathly afraid of animals, except for cats - he chases them around while laughing maniacally.
My daughter, on the hand, is sweet and gentle most of the time. She has a tendency to pick up the cat like a sack of potatoes sometimes, though.