One thing I really love about two-and-a-half year old Jackson is that he hasn’t learned the dead-weight drop yet, which is good because he is really heavy. His cousin Emma knew it well when she was little. The dead-weight drop is when you want a child to come along with you and they refuse,so you grab them by the hand and start guiding them toward where you want them to go, and they simply go limp. It feels like trying to drag a bag of cement. Jackson does this bungee cord move. He flaps his arms and whines a little. One of his hands is in the hand of the adult trying to move him along, so it looks a bit silly. But his feet are walking in the right direction, so the management is quite simple if you don’t mind the whining. The other thing about Jackson is that once you’ve gotten him where you want him, he doesn’t hold a resentment. He just engages in whatever it is you had in mind for him.
I wish I were more like Jackson.