Acting like a baby

Recently I’ve been comparing Naa Ameley’s actions to human nature especially in reference to the term, “acting like a baby”. 

For example, this morning after she had successfully finished her bottle almost all by herself (lol… she can hold her own bottle to her face and feed — occasionally with a little help), and successfully burped, guess what followed… she threw up right all over me 🤦🏾‍♀️ Right after that, she began smiling and laughing — perhaps after feeling relief from tossing cookies — whilst I, on the other hand, tried to figure out how to most efficiently clean up this mess without making her cry…

Reminds me of some people I’ve met, and sometimes even my own self when I’ve unfortunately been acting like a baby. Be ok and even quite successful one minute and then without any warning, spew a lot of disrespectful words or gestures all over the people I “need” or “work with” and then expect them to smile with me the next minute, or after which, I simply choose not to care about the effects my outpouring caused. 

Like a baby, just that we’re not babies, we’re acting like them. 

Or the other day when I had finally been able to grab myself a meal, and was right, riiight in the middle of it. Guess who began wailing that she wanted food immediately? You guessed right. And she wouldn’t stop or wait her turn. I realised in that moment that that’s a skill we are taught and choose to pick up along the way. 

So when it’s all about us and everyone must stop for us, we aren’t babies but we surely are acting like them! The difference though is unlike babies, we either know better or can find out how to know better (if we want to, we can even ask Google). Or like babies, we truly are oblivious to how our actions affect others, and a kind prompt could do the trick. Or like babies, we’d rather prefer to give rude wake up calls in the middle of the night to prompt others as to what to do right in response to their baby-ish behaviour. Funny thing is babies barely have a choice because they haven’t yet learnt or been quite exposed to the art of communicating like adults, and yet, we have. 

And how about the time yours truly would just cry! And for the life of me, I’m unable to figure out what’s bothering her till it’s satisfied somehow. A case of bad gas? A case of a dirty diaper? A case of hunger? A case of a toy “not working” as expected? A case of the bite of an insect that came out of nowhere? A case of some distress… unable to communicate it without throwing a tantrum. Or should I say only being able to communicate it through tantrums. 

Remember the ones you know who seem to consistently communicate with shouts and screams when some expectation hasn’t been met? Are they truly unable to communicate without the drama or they just can’t be bothered? Remember when you did same that one time? Intentionally or not, that’s baby right there. 

The cool thing about acting like a baby is that it’s not beyond any of us. You could dare say it’s natural human behaviour that we’ve chosen to leave behind… well, mostly. But what’s way cooler is it’s also not beyond us to rise above it… and choose the less selfish, more self-empowered, and the productively experienced approach. 

The next time I feel someone is acting like a baby, I may treat them like one and extend grace, or be reminded of Naa and just smile (if it’s a terrible situation I may just suit them up in diapers in my mind to help me cope) or if I’m not up for all this adulting, I may join them in the crib and respond as a baby would. I honestly don’t know. But I honestly do hope that whatever happens, I would glorify God… baby acts or not… 

Scene three , take two, action! 🎥👶🏾👶🏼👶🏿👶🏻🍼🎞

10:07am

1st Baby Diaries || Saturday, 9th April, 2022 || 4 calendar months, 15 days