About 2 months ago, after our trip to Singapore, we had to get out a “sleep school” expert to help us get our daughter back into a regular sleep pattern. After spending about five minutes with our daughter, the expert started to laugh. “Oh, a negotiator!” she said, “I love these kids. They argue every point with you. It’s quite ingenious what they come up with.”
It seems that other children of lawyers have similar tendencies – I laughed at this post on PrawfsBlawg, in which a blogger’s three year old daughter outmaneuvered the rule of “no socks off inside”.
I am struck by a fear that perhaps I have spawned a Baby Lawyer. I know that she got it from me: I’ve been arguing the point before I could even talk properly. Seriously, I do enjoy the law, but if my daughter wanted to be a lawyer, would I encourage her? I’m not sure that I would, unless legal practice changed radically (working hours, stress levels etc).
I wonder if Eaglet No. 2 will be a Baby Lawyer too? He seems a bit calmer (as much as one can judge from within the womb), and I suspect that he’s going to be more easy-going. I’ll have to watch out that my daughter doesn’t negotiate him into stuff all the time!
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I have a negotiator niece: she negotiates mitigating circumstances for reduction in her time-out periods, with which she is punished when she is naughty. She also appeals, while she is in time out. Anyone who walks pass, while she is standing in the time out corner, she calls out: Do you know why Mummy put me here? I don’t think it’s fair. I was only naughty this much, and therefore I should only get this much time out. I feel like I’ve been here ages. I promise to be better next time if I can come out of time out now. And I finished all my dinner last night.
Good luck for Eaglet no. 2!
Oh, Baby Academics are quite funny too.
My partner’s boss’ kids are very didactic towards me. I asked a very stupid question once (of a wood louse, which I’d never seen before, “what’s this called?”) and BA gave me a fantastic withering look and said rather flatly, “Its a woodlouse.” Then, for the rest of my visit in his garden, he pointed things out to me, “This, Oanh, is a bloomie. Mum calls them flowers. But I call them bloomie, because they are blue flowers. This is a rose. Some roses smell, but this one does not. It is yellow.” He’s four.
I have a fish-daughter (as in fish-wife). Nobody is ever going to die wondering what she wants or thinks. But as others point above, the comments can be very funny.
Oanh, I love the sound of your negotiator niece…I reckon mine will be appealing before I know it. My daughter has a touch of the academic too (understandably, given my occupation) – she gave my mother a 5 minute lecture on rice which ended with the warning that you can only eat rice if it’s cooked and it’s really horrible if it’s raw (guess who tried it?).
Sinclair, someone told me the other day that my daughter’s every emotion is obvious from not only her face but her whole body – just like Mummy – no one’s ever going to wonder what she’s thinking either…
oanh – that is frightening! So smart!!
It is funny how much logic and common sense is involved in law – most people could read law and understand it and apply it, with these skills only. My lecturer once said law involved maths, and half the class fainted (being the English literary non science kids).
my eldest hasn’t shown signs of being a lawyer’s kid yet – there is hope for her yet.
re career – LE – let em be. They’ll find their own way, just like you have.
Here’s a test – how to tie up oanh’s negotiator niece:
1. All naughtiness is punished the same.
2. Prior good or bad conduct is irrelevant – only the naughtiness is relevant.
3. The naughty corner is a place of silence. Any crying or speaking will prevent time from starting, or require time to re-start.
4. Only the parent directing the naughty corner can decide on all of the above. There is no right of appeal!
5. Promises of future good conduct are irrelevant. See 3 above. Future good conduct is presumed. Do you mean to be naughty in future if you don’t get your way? Oh really!
6. Only the parent is the timekeeper. For any enquiries as to time left – see rule 3.
I’m sure she’ll find some more holes, so this will be subject to change without notice. Or appeal!
ps your posting clock seems weird. i posted the last comment at 11.19am qld time (12.19pm adst). weird Is the server clock in perth?
Pete, I know it’s weird – I don’t know what time it’s on, but it’s certainly not on AEST. Given that SL and I are in totally different time zones anyway, I don’t suppose it matters.
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[...] And in a sign of the future of feminists at work, Legal Eagle sees her daughter moving into the law at an early age, judging by her performance at sleep school. [...]