Parenting to
the Quirks
Written By Rachel Mosteller
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Why I embrace my kids' bizarre obsessions.
The scene: Christmas 2006, my mother's living room. I see a brown package land in the hands of my daughter, then 2. Hoping to get the "big shot," I clamber into position. Ellie rips off the paper.
"Feathers!" she screams, as she thrusts her small fist inside the container, filled with more than 200 cotton balls (a.k.a. "feathers," a.k.a. best. present. ever.).
Weeks before, my mom had been skeptical: Wouldn't we rather get Ellie a doll? Wouldn't her 11-month-old brother prefer something, anything, other than a squeaky dog chew toy?
Nah. My husband and I believe in "parenting to the quirks" — celebrating and encouraging those weird traits that make our kids unique. Even obsessions with personal care products.
This particular quirk started innocently enough: 1-year-old Ellie wanted to play with the cotton balls from our medicine cabinet. Then her love of the fluffy stuff escalated, eventually forcing us to bypass the drugstore beauty aisle, lest she beg for more. Recently, I stepped out of the shower to find a pile of you-know-whats on the floor. "Sshh," my now 3-year-old said. "They're watching Dumbo on TV."
The best part of parenting to the quirks? There are no rules (well, almost no rules — clothing must be weather appropriate), and you can do it pretty much anywhere. We've brought cotton swabs (known then as "shadows") to preschool; we've gone to the doctor's office with feather duster in tow. Olives for breakfast? Sure! Wear my pink fuzzy slippers to church? Why not!
Maybe it's genetic: My fondest childhood memories include playing with bottles of nail polish. But I grew out of it, and now, in fact, have unpolished nails ... which is probably a good thing because should I ever need to soak a cotton ball with polish remover, I'm not sure how Ellie would feel about that.
Plus: Parents dish on their kids' funny quirks.
