Sydney the Arguer

Sydney has gotten to the age where she will argue with you. I find this really fun.

I’m an antagonist. A contrarian. A debater. I like to argue just for argument’s sake. I believe good things come from debate. You strengthen your position. Or, you change your mind.

I think my daughter is going to be a lot like me.

Her favorite show right now is Team Umizoomi. It is a show that teaches kids math and shapes. Don’t let anyone ever tell you TV is bad for kids. You find the right shows, and they learn a lot. My daughter was at a friend’s house recently and picked up a toy and excitedly said, “Look mom, a dodecahedron!” Yes, she knows what a shape with 12 flat sides is because of Team Umizoomi.

I must say, with some embarrassment, that until I overheard Team Umizoomi in the background, I did not know what a dodecahedron was. Or, I knew what it was, but not what to call it.

Now, I’ll be prepared if I am ever on Jeopardy and there is a SHAPES category.

Sydney has taken to giving her family members character roles in the shows she watches. She’s always the hero or star of the show. For example, in Dora the Explorer, you can bet she’s not Diego. No sidekick for her.

In Team Umizoomi, she has deemed herself Millie. I think Millie is the female in the three-person ring of math geniuses traipsing around Umiworld solving mathematical dilemmas. The other two characters are Bot, who looks like a computer, and Gio.

Tyson has the honor of being Gio in Sydney’s world, and Brooke is Bot. She’s even named the dogs, Vegas and Murphy, after the show’s villains, the Troublemakers.

That doesn’t leave a character for dad. So I am Umi-car, the car they travel in.

That’s right. I have been reduced to being a car. I’m not even worthy of a full cartoon character.

Of course, this is unacceptable to me. So, I have decided I will be Gio and Tyson will be Umi-car. When an episode is on and we play this game and she tells me I am Umi-car, I simply say, “No, I am Gio.”

This drives her insane. “No, Daddy! Tyson is Gio! You are Umi-car.” I’ll fire back that I am Gio. And it goes on and on and on, for nearly the length of the cartoon.

Fun for me. She can’t let it go, and I WON'T let her let it go.

But here is how I know my daughter is really like me: we could be hours away in either direction from a Team Umizoomi episode, and she’ll simply walk up to me and, out of the blue, say, “Daddy, you are not Gio, you are Umi-car!”

She is picking an argument. For no reason other than to argue.

A girl after my own heart.

This goes on in many of our conversations. “Sydney, who loves you the most in the whole wide world? Daddy.”

“No daddy! Mommy loves me the most in the world.”

She gets so indignant, too. She forcefully shouts back. This is serious business in her little world.

I can’t wait until she gets older. We will have some great discussions and debates. Hopefully, we will open each other’s minds a bit.

My wife senses trouble. She sees many clashes in our future. She pictures doors slamming in my face.

Maybe so. But I am going to have an independent-thinking daughter, who knows she has to consider all sides in a debate and properly frame and support her position.

That will contribute to her success as an adult.

At least that is what I see in my mind. Sydney may see it differently.

If she does, I am sure I will hear about it.