Do All Four-Year-Olds Have QUIRKS?

Today as I chased my son Luke, who's 4, around for a picture as he ran and hid deep under an table (picture below).  Just then, I thought to myself that he surely has many odd quirks such as these where he hides when mommy want to take his picture. It's been months since I've been able to easily snap a shot of his beautiful smiling face without having to make some sort of "deal" with him. I wondered to myself as I chased him, "do all 4-year-olds have odd quirks as these?".  What I have learned from these quirky behaviors is that they are short-lasting and not worth fighting or placing efforts into changing; unless of course you want to have high blood pressure.  The best lesson all parents learn through experience, and experience alone,  is that, some battles are just not worth fighting. You might start out with all sorts of neat ideas of hoe you want to raise this child but the child will MOLD you into a more flexible parent in not time; to put it mildly.  Before I had my own children I thought myself very sensitive to other parent's parental-related issues due to the fact that I had quite a few years teaching under my belt as well as a fancy education degree.  Yet, looking back now, I realize that I was often too quick to judge parents on how they dealt with their children's misbehaviors.  Yet life seems to always come full circle in the most ingenious of ways. For now as a parent I experience the reverse situation.   I see and feel the ways in which people without kids are often too quick to judge me in ways I deal with my child. What might seems like to an observer as us allowing Luke to carry on some less-than-pleasant and possibly disruptive behavior is actually a well planned approach on part of my husband and me. As hard as that may be to swallow, I actually choose not to fight some battles. 

 Luke making a face.....did not want his picture taken

He even hid under the table

It does not bother me one bit to see people without kids think of me as doing things wrong.  It's actually a reaffirming situation that shows me first hand that life has all its lessons built into time. In time, all knowledge will reveal itself and everyone is exactly where they should be in terms of their learning cycle. I smile and think to myself, "wait....just wait...."