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Mother's Day Should Be Everyday
My 3-year-old’s first real experience with a holiday (Other than the famous ones: Birthday’s, Christmas, Easter, etc.) was with Mother’s Day. We explained to him that moms get so worn out during the year, that people made a special day just for moms to recuperate. It was moms day to relax and everyone else could do things for mom. He thought that was neat and would do his share.
Surprisingly, he did an exceptional job of helping mom out that day. He picked up after himself most the day. He cleaned his room, and even attempted to go number 1 himself (don’t worry, we cleaned off the floor and wall shortly after!).
A couple weeks later our family was sitting around the table at supper-time. We were catching up on everyone’s activities from the day. It so happened that I had to run some errands after supper, and the little guy begged to drive in the car with me. My daughter needed help with her homework and asked me to help her study. The oldest daughter asked if I would show her how to work some of her stereo components after supper. Item after item required dad’s special attention. This went on for some time.
My wife was now feeling quite left out. Except for the occasional “mom can you get me a spoon”, and “mom can you clean off the table tonight”, and “mom can you wash out my favorite jeans”, she couldn’t understand why dad was so special and mom was nothing more than a cleaning woman. She finally got fed up and said “Why is dad so special and I’m just a slave?”
It was our 3 year old who quickly pointed out: “Because mom, it isn’t Mother’s Day anymore!”
A Day In The Life Of An Average American Family (Page 7)
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Need A New Hoop Dad
One of the problems with bringing youngsters to the store with you, is they automatically assume that it is their time to get a treat, toy, or some other form of goody! Of course, because you love them, you are always giving in, reasoning a little treat can’t hurt anything! Mom is the worst. It doesn’t matter when she goes out, or where she is going, she and the little guy always return home with some new little toy.
This goes on for quite some time until dad notices the trend. Soon as I mention I need to run to the store, I hear this little voice from the other room (like he has radar ears or something) “I want to go!” After taking him along a few times, I figure out he is making out like a bandit.
One Sunday I put my foot down. We head off to the store and I decided, no matter what he says to convince me, I’m not going to buy him anything, no matter what! We enter the store and shortly after he sees a small basketball hoop which hangs from the door. His is broken, and it’s only a couple dollars, but I am going to use this as an example! Soon as he sees it he says “Dad I want that basketball hoop!” I say, “son, you are always getting something at the store, and you can’t continue going through life buying everything you see (trying to rationalize with a 3 year old!). He begs, “but dad, mine is broken!”. I held firm: “ no, you can’t have it”. He starts becoming very upset, which in turn makes me very upset. I eventually pick him up (giving him a slight shake, not quite hard enough for anyone to scream “Child Abuse!”) and sternly look into his eyes and say “I don’t care what you say or do, you are not getting that toy!”
He knows when dad is mad and when he better not push the issue. But he was hurt, his little eyes were watering and his face was long and red. He didn’t speak to me while the groceries were being loaded into the cart. I pushed the cart out of the store with the little guy following somberly behind. I was feeling proud of myself, like I had set a good example, and done something that one day my son would look back on and thank me for.
I then hear a small voice say “Dad, do you have to work tomorrow?” I said “yes I do son” thinking he was going to miss me after being with me all weekend. He perked up and said “Good, I’ll come back here with mom tomorrow!”
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