Although I do try not to fall into the trap of pigeon-holing children before they can even string a proper sentence together ('Well, little Pubert was pointing at some numbers yesterday, so Hubert and I are expecting him to become an actuary by the time he's twelve'), I must admit that I sometimes catch myself teetering on the edge of this trap. I think that this is probably entirely normal and suggests that you are actually paying a degree of attention and not just blithely letting your child climb into boiling pans of water or stage a hostile takeover of your local branch of Tesco.
I do often wonder how Felix will turn out - admittedly, partly born of that feeling of 'God, I hope I don't fuck you up too much'. Despite my aforementioned resistance, I can't help but notice what a singularly 'definite' character he has. He was miserable as a baby. I don't just mean that he cried a lot, as most babies do, but he actually spent a lot of time surveying us all with an expression that said, 'I despise you all for your ability to communicate effectively, move freely and generally disport yourselves in all your infuriating being-able-to-do-whatever-you-want ways'. Even his movements in utero conveyed a frustrated determination to do his own thing and not let anything (even a Mother's liver) stand in his way. I'm sure many people (my husband included) would tell me that I am either paranoid or a bit mad for suggesting this - at the very least that I'm 'projecting' or some nonsense. Pfft, I can't disprove that, I can only state what I felt.
It's certainly interesting to consider the nature/nurture debate when you are bringing up a child of your own. How much have I contributed to his personality? Does our parental style of allowing Felix to assert and express himself without censure (excepting the climbing into pots of boiling water and the usual hitting/biting/being a rude, horrible little pig stuff) create the independent, determined individual I had imagined him to be in the first place in my delusional pregnancy-brained state? Am I going to continue blathering on without making any kind of useful point until Felix wakes from his nap and therefore never finish this damned post? The answer to that, my friends, is 'Yes'.
