This past weekend, we had my dad’s family reunion. We camped in the mountains of Wyoming where it rained like crazy. This was especially exciting since we did the tent thing due to us purchasing a mini-van and no longer having towing capability for our camper… When it wasn’t raining, we enjoyed horseback riding (Kaitlyn is obsessed), building fires (apparently all of my kids are obsessed), throwing rocks in the lake (again, all), and rolling Razors (yes, you read that right–no one was necessarily obsessed with the rolling aspect, though). Good times all around. Today, I am enjoying the mountain of laundry that follows camping. And I use the word “enjoying” quite sarcastically.
You may recall that my dad is where I get my “chill” disposition from. Another quality I got from his family is my dry sense of humor. His family is a big group of “smart-alecs”–there is a lot of joking and sarcasm going on. It is always a good time. While we were there, my family was asking me about this blog and the topic went toward haters. With that in mind, my Uncle Terryl told me he would offer some free parenting advice for me to share. So here we go. If you ever have trouble with your child getting out of bed, you simply need to leave something your child is afraid of in the hall right outside the room. In my cousin’s case (this happens to be a true story), it was a wolf mask. My cousin got laughing about this experience. They had tried everything they could think of and finally resorted to the wolf mask. And it worked. Unfortunately, this conversation came up right as I was leaving. Next year, I will have to do some interviews and get some more wisdom from the family.
While this story was told in jest, it was a method actually used back when I think parenting was a little less stressful for parents. They did what worked. There are some good points to take away here. The great points of this story are to a) always have a sense of humor while you are solving problems and b) you can think outside the box. Obviously, you don’t want to be doing something that scares your child if your child is too sensitive to handle it. My cousin has grown up to be a great father and husband and is a very kind and giving person, so I don’t think it ruined him. He laughs about it.
Okay, back to laundry.
I've noticed that my son (3 and 3/4 years old) – a classic nap/nighttime curtain-call kid, as I call them – will not come out of his room if his baby sister (1 month old) is crying. When she was first born, I was worried it would have the opposite effect: he'd want to come out and see what all the hubbub was about. But no, apparently it's the equivalent of a scary mask! Ha!
That is awesome! And I love the name you give it. Brayden is totally a curtain call kid, too.