Let's just get it out there: I'm 40 and I have two kids under 3. At first I thought God was just making me wait so long to meet their father for his own amusement, then last week I realized He was doing me a favor. He was making me wait for all my friends and family to go through the many rites of parenthood so they could pass along their lessons learned to me.
Case in point: last week I took my kiddos to my very good friend's house so she could watch them for a couple of hours. When I returned it was time to clean up the toys and we're all like, "OK, time to clean up toys!" My two-year-old started getting that angst in his voice, like cleaning up toys was the last thing on his mind.
(I should say, the toys we were about to put away numbered in the bazillions...little army men and other like-sized items that were kept in a plastic bin. I am still questioning my friend's sanity when she let her son have these, but I must defer to those with the experience. Maybe someday that will make sense to me. Even when my son dumped them out all over the floor, my friend was unfazed.)
So my son's voice is rising and his eyebrows are knotting up and I'm thinking I'm gonna have to pull rank on him, when my friend swoops in and says "I bet I can put these toys away faster than you!!!" and commences to throwing the little men in the box very rapidly. Yeah, you guessed it, my son shrieks and happily follows suit. I just sat there in awe. I expected my friend to say "...ah, grasshopper, soon you too will learn similar tricks..."
I think I will keep this friend around a little longer...like till my kids are 18.
5 comments:
Awwww. You are so sweet. BTW, LOVED having the boys over last week. Bring them over any time, my friend. Oh, and I guess you can come too. ;)
Yeah, I think I'll keep her around too. Looking forward to meeting you in person. I don't have as many good tricks as Chilihead, but I'll be glad to pass on whatever ones I can!
Funny. Yeah, us youngins with older kids know all the good tricks.
I use a similar trick about going to bed at night. The whining begins every single night. "I DON'T WANNA GO TO BED." I laugh to myself and reply, "Ok, then, looks like I'll be the winner to your bedroom!" and I take off running. Works every time...
Raising three boys I have learned "competition" can be used to your advantage =)) Great friends to have...
THis is too funny! I posted, not long ago, on being an Older Parent (revealing my age)! Perhaps I was, too, was waiting for all my family and friends to go through all the parenting stuff to teach me! :)
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