by Cassie Kristof

Created on: March 20, 2008   Last Updated: March 22, 2008

Men are not so much babies as toddlers. I should know; I have a man a baby and a toddler - sometimes it gets a little confusing as to which one is which! They throw tantrums, they look up at you with those baby blues and know just when to tell you they love you to get what they want. As to why men are that way, well it's a nature versus nurture argument isn't it? Were they born that way, or did their mothers make them that way?

In my husband's case I would have to say that nature is certainly not to blame. I should have realized it whilst we were dating, but as the saying goes... love is blind. My husband has a very close relationship with his mother and she would do (and all too frequently still does) anything for him. Looking back I can see that not everybody's Mum still butters their toast and lays their clothes out for them at 21 years of age!

In my brother's case I think it's a little bit of nature and a little of nurture. He was a baby that cried all the time, a toddler who threw huge tantrums, and a small child who clung to my mother's skirts. As he grew older he became a teenager who promptly found a girlfriend to mother him and finally grew up to be a young man who knew he had met the ultimate girl to marry when she began mowing the lawns for him.

I have two sons of my own and I fearfully watch as they begin to start the process of growing up to be... babies. How can I change the inevitable? They watch their father throw tantrums when he doesn't get his own way. They watch their uncle get his own way through his childlike charm. They watch me give into them and they charm their sister quite successfully already. They watch, they learn and they practice being man-babies. Before you know it, it morphs into a personality trait, a habit that will eventually annoy their chosen significant other, who will no doubt blame it on good old mum.

So, why are men such babies? Because we let them get away with it! Maybe instead of reading books on dating, marriage and relationship advice we should just apply the same principals to our men as we do to our children? Now where did I put that copy of 'Toddler Taming'....?

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