*Warning, a little gross*
When I was a little kid, I would get bouts of constipation about once or twice a year, and would often end up really sick. During these times, it felt to me like my mom would get mad at me for being constipated, even though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't holding my bowel movements in to be naughty. Once when I got constipated, I got really sick one night, and started vomiting, and my mom finally started showing some sympathy, rubbing my back and cooing, "Oooh, poor LtlPinkCoupe; no wonder you were so sick...." and then I felt upset because she hadn't been this nice to me before, when my constipation started.
Then, over winter break, I was telling my older stepsister about one time when I got really sick like this before my mom and stepfather's wedding, and they both got mad at me and were yelling at me about how they were going to take me to the hospital if the medicine didn't start to work on the morning of their wedding, but then it started working finally and we went to their wedding with no problems. I concluded with, "Yeah, every time I got sick like that, my mom got really mad at me, even though I didn't get sick on purpose." My stepsister then said, "Do you suppose that your mom wasn't really "mad" at you, she was just really frustrated and worried because you were so sick and she didn't know what to do or what was wrong?"
That hadn't really occurred to me before, and it got me thinking....did my mom REALLY always get mad at me for having constipation, or did I just not realize that she was just feeling frustrated and helpless due to my difficulties with perspective taking and theory of mind?
What do you guys think?
_________________
I wish Sterling Holloway narrated my life.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" "Life isn't fair, Calvin." "I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in MY favor?" ~ from Calvin and Hobbes