Sorry for the bad game-show pun. But I'm trying to figure out if my kid is just too smart for me or if he's really telling the truth. Or, if it's more gray like, it might not be the truth but he believes it is. Dunno.
The Boy has this habit of absent-mindedly whistling. It's almost constant. While he's on the computer, while he's drawing, while he's doing his homework, while he's walking around, no real pattern. I don't really notice it most times. It gets your attention when you're trying to hear the TV or if it comes to conflict with his younger brother (usually in the form of spittle-inducing shushing sessions). And while it tends not to bug me, it bugs his father a bit more.
Recently, hubby asked The Boy to try to be aware of when he's whistling and to try not to whistle while people are nearby trying to do something like talk, read, watch TV, whatever. The Boy's answer was that it's one of his tics. Hubby told me about this and I thought about it for a while. On another day, I asked him to stop whistling as his brother was trying to sing and they were arguing about it. The Boy then informed me that it was a tic. The way he said it rather implied, yah, it's a tic so I can't control is so pardon me while I continue whistling.
So that's what lead me to ponder this thought. We talked about how he doesn't whistle at church or at school. So obviously he can control it. However, he reminded me that he's able to control other tics at school or church, too. This is just one reason we call him the litigator. But I digress.
Right now, I don't think his whistling is a tic. I think it's a habit. And I think The Boy doesn't really know the difference between the two. That's my gut feeling. However, if someone were able to come prove to me that it was a tic, I would very quickly eat those words and not have a problem with it. So it really is a "dunno" at this point.
Seeing as how it's a very benign habit/tic, I'm not too worried about it. But it really does raise the question: Will my little genius learn to use his TS as a tool with which to manipulate people? If that sounds like a horrible thought from a mother who should always be her son's biggest cheerleader, let me just say that I speak from experience. I am adopted. And I was raised in and out of hospitals for the first 10 or so years of my life. I remember once, when I was in big trouble with my mom, I accused her of punishing me because I was adopted. Fortunately for me, God gave me the right mom and she basically gave me some answer (but not as flip as in my mind) to the effect of, uh-huh, right...that must be it...NOT! Ha ha ha! The other issue with my kidney/bladder health? Well, when I was in school, my urologist gave all of my schools a note that said I had to be allowed to go to the bathroom whenever I said I did, and then later, added that I couldn't do any contact sports. At first, I never abused that. But please find me a Jr high or high school kid that won't learn to abuse the power to leave any class at any time and I'll find you a kid that probably lives under a rock. Or...a kid that's probably just got a much higher moral fiber than me. HA! Anyway, yah, I abused the crap out of that stuff. I mean, I tried to use that note to get out of SWIMMING. Didn't really work as I couldn't prove the risk to my kidney from swimming. But the point is, I tried.
So I will try to stop projecting my own moral limitations onto my beautiful 6 yr old. However, the kid is a near personality clone of his mom. So I do wonder if he will use the TS at some point. Like now.
We'll see.
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