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Thursday, March 4, 2010

The World's Smallest Headbanger.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I fancied myself something of a headbanger. I rocked out to what passed for hard rock in that era, including bands like Guns n Roses, AC/DC, Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant (yes, really), Skid Row and, ummm, even Nelson (yeah, I cringed when I wrote that).

But I never thought my daughter would follow in my footsteps at the tender age of ten months.

So you can imagine my surprise when she started banging her head.  Sometimes, it's obvious she's doing it just for fun. Sitting in her high chair, she'll rock backwards into the seat back. When playing in the kitchen, she'll knock her forehead on the cabinet doors, grinning at the sound. In her crib, she'll gently bang against the wooden slats.

That doesn't worry me.

But you know what does? The way she slams her skull around she gets angry. If she's on the floor, she'll bang her head into the ground. If I'm holding her, she head butts me (and believe me, that can hurt). If she's sitting in her high chair, she gets up close and personal with her tray.

Fortunately, it never lasts long.

See, she has my temper. So she'll get extremely, explosively angry for short periods of time. She'll scream, she'll flail, she'll throw herself around and generally be a pain in the ass for five minutes or so. Then she'll get distracted by something shiny and the storm will pass as quickly as it started.

Almost before you can blink an eye, her smile will be out in full force again, and the only sign of the temper tantrum that was are the tears still tracking down her cheeks.

What do you guys think? Should I be worried? Or should I just start collecting video for her VH1 Behind the Music episode when she makes it big as the lead singer of a heavy metal band?

10 comments:

  1. I think lots of kids go through the headbanging stage. If it lasts, make her wear a helmet. Ha!


    Sorry I haven't commented for sooo long. I've been really busy.

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  2. Ha! My Asher did this too. SO far he seems OK. He does appreciate heavy metal music, even though I no longer do...I guess that part worries me ;)

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  3. i think it's a sensory feedback thing. I've worked with little kids basically my whole career and i've seen it quite a lot. It's also about the reaction they can get from adults when they do this-i agree that it is awful to watch! not as bad as when the hold their breath when they are angry....

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  4. Visiting blogs this weekend from The Lady Bloggers. My daughter is 2 and does this all the time :-( Mostly because Daddy listen to heavy metal.

    I'm also hosting a 3 book giveaway for writing moms, be sure to stop by and enter!

    www.StepfaniesTimeOut.com

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  5. Jake used to do bang his head on the floor too. It really used to freak us out until we saw him go to bang his head on the kitchen floor (linoleum). Stop. Move 3 inches to the living room floor (carpet). Bang. Right then, we knew the kid was playing us and getting some sort of reward from us. A little selective ignoring and the problem started going away.

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  6. Oh you should definitely record her when she is doing these headbanging fits.
    for later years. LOL.

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  7. oh my gosh, this sounds terrifying -- the head banging on the floor thing, I mean. The "head banging dancing" is actually hilarious though!

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  8. Time to introduce some Metallica, I think.

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  9. Amber-
    I found your site through the Lady Bloggers Tea Party. It's nice to *meet* you. My youngest does this same thing. Actually, so far all three of my kids have, but with my youngest it's more of a tantrum thing than a curiousity thing. He will get angry, glance up at me, then tentatively bang his head on the floor. If it's not hard enough the first time, he'll do it again till it hurts enough for him to warrant a fake cry. :) At first I immediately responded, because I didn't want him to hurt himself, but now I try to ignore it because I know he just wants attention. Haha!
    Thanks for sharing and helping me to know I'm not alone in this.
    - Melissa

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  10. I knew you were and i were kindred spirits... I, too, was a Nelson lover.

    In fact, I saw them OPEN for Cinderella...

    Then I got grunge and it was not. cool.

    Here's to headbanging babies!

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