Grandparent poaching

Dominic is a pretty outgoing wee chap and enjoys going out meeting new people however sometimes you can be too charming and get yourself into trouble.

I have become accustomed to Dominic using the gym as an infant-mum swingers session and heading off to clamber over other women in search of cuddles whenever they are sprawled out doing stretches or ab exercises. At his music and movement classes he tends to seek out older gals (that is girls about 2-4 years of age), and somehow they always end up feeding him their food and patting him affectionately on the head like a puppy.

However, today at his Mainly Music group his overly social ways ran him into a bit of a conflict. I recall that as a child I had rather strong views against 'Mummy stealing' as I called it. The mother russling was generally perpetrated by a cousin or friend and was defined as any instance when your mother paid too much attention to another person's kid (where too much attention basically equally any). I saw it as a heinous and inexcusable crime for other kids to get hugged by my mother or given ice blocks that were mine by any just and reasonable thinking.

Apparently for many kids this territorial approach to parents also extends to grandparents.

Today for some reason Dom took it into his head that he was out to capture the heart of anyone in the room over the age of fifty. He could not be detered from his mission. The toys and playtime before the session started proved no distraction, the music held no interest for him and his mum's repeated attempts to carry him back to join the other kids and have fun with the songs like he was supposed to were fruitless.

Any chance Dom got to break free he was off to approach one of the doting grandparents who sat on chairs back against the edges of the room. He would pull himself up on their legs, smile, flap his arms and babble away until they took the hint and picked him up. Rather embarrassingly I was left like a crazy childless woman who had just come along to join in a bunch of kids' action songs. I could only smile on pathetically as I watched Dom get bounced on the knee or held and cooed at my various older folks. After the session ended Dom immediately zoomed off after one of his new substitute grans. I was bombarded with questions and praise for the wee rascal and he was lapping up the attention with a mile-wide grin on his face.

After a while he was put back down and immediately headed off for another lady. Unfortunately this lady's real grandson was around and saw Dominic approaching. Alas the little boy clearly had suspicions and kicked Dom as he came past. Dom burst into tears which surprised me as the kick hadn't actually looked that hard, more of a tap really, but I freaked that maybe it had been the spot where he had his lung surgery scar and he might still be sensitive there. I ran up to comfort Dom but before I reached him, the kid's gran swooped up the crying Dominic. The tears stopped immediately and Dom was soon all smiles again and trying to grab at the lady's glasses.

'He's such a lovely, happy little chap, isn't he?' cooed the lady to me.

I agreed but silently suspected that he may have gone a little Hollywood on the crying. Maybe he should be attending drama rather than music classes?


Would you trust this boy with your Gran?