Little Miss Stroppy

April 19, 2015 by lad2dad 14 Comments

Something very strange happened over the school holidays.

At the start of the two weeks I had a 4 year old daughter called Daisy. A sweet, funny, charming, delightful Daisy.

By the end of the 14 days that followed, I still had a daughter called Daisy but she had seemed to have morphed into a teenager.

A stroppy, don’t-do-as-your-told, get-out-of-my-face, why-are-you-so-annoying-dad teenager.

Dad?

When did we stop using the ‘DY’ on the end?!

Who made that decision? I’m not ready for that kind of decision.

It’s all very strange; she still looks exactly the same on the outside…

(She had a lot of ice cream during the holidays… don’t judge me!)

But the interior has all changed.

The most prominent difference I’ve noticed is her response to things I say and, in particular, the word ‘Okay’ when I ask her a question. Except it’s not a regular ‘Okay’ anymore; this is a much more serious version, the kind that sounds more like…

OH-KAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Somehow the ‘O’ has been detached from the ‘kay’, and the ‘kay’ now seems to have gained several extra letters when delivered by Little Miss Stroppy.

Everything is a problem:

“Daisy, please can you come into the bathroom so we can clean your teeth?”

Silence.

“Daisy, please come to the bathroom for teeth.”

Silence.

“Daisy, why do I have to ask you three times to come to the bathroom to clean your teeth?”

“OH-KAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY”.

Does this sound familiar?

What’s happened? Why the attitude?

She’s even started to storm off to her room if she’s not happy with something I’ve said to her.

“That’s just girls for you”, my wife said in an attempt to reassure me.

Now, I might be heading down the paranoia route here but it seems like my wife and my daughter have formed some sort of alliance against me. They clearly understand each other better than I ever will. Eventually this will lead to them doing most things together… without me at all.

In a nutshell, I’m being phased out!

How my daughter has hit the mood-swingy teenage stage already is baffling in itself considering she can’t even read yet and is still playing with Barbie dolls.

And it’s happened so quickly. A couple of weeks ago, I’d be goofing around in the kitchen, pulling faces and saying silly words that would have had her in hysterics.

Now, she just finds me annoying, not funny. (As does my wife, incidentally).

So in what can only be described as an unfortunate change in roles, my 4 year old now finds her 33 year old dad too immature for her.

I knew there would be a moment in our relationship when this would happen but how was I to know it would be so soon?!

Maybe next time we are sat having breakfast together I’ll mention the global recession, or something more on her level…

#lad2dad lesson men don’t understand women… at any age!

Did this happen to you? Always love to hear your stories in the comments section below.