You ever watch Arrested Development? It was only one of our favorite shows. LOVED it. I'll come back to that in a minute.
Putting the girls to bed tonight I found myself fascinated with how we, as parents, strive to create the most desperate of mental scenarios for our children, so that we might persuade them to DO or NOT DO certain things. Dan and I often laugh at the things we come up with to accomplish this. Tonight was one of those funny realizations for me, as I caught myself first, then not 5 minutes later Dan did it too. It's confusing, but this is what I mean- here's what we said,
Me: "Addie- don't stand next to the fan or your hair is going to get sucked up in it and spin around and around and get CHOPPED OFF." (This was followed by a bewildered Addie and her slowly scooting away from the fan.)
5 minutes later I heard Dan say:
"Addie don't wrap that around your wrist or you'll fall asleep with it and it will CHOP YOUR HAND OFF."
Why do we start the sentence off appropriately and then feel the need to suddenly come to a drastic and cataclysmic ending???!!! What ever happened to learning by experience? Learning the hard way? Learning at all?
In the show Arrested Development, the grown children have memories and flashbacks of when they were younger and their Dad did this very thing- only he took it to the next level- and was constantly paying his one-armed friend to teach the kids a lesson. Ex: the kids would be whining in the car and the Dad would warn them to stop or something terrible would happen, then after whining again a man would come out of nowhere and be hit by their car- and his "arm" would go flying off. The kids screamed in horror while the man ran around yelling with his arm chopped off- and the Dad would lean back and say something like, "See kids- this is what happens when you whine in the car." Maybe I should just enlist the help of a one-armed friend for teaching lessons to my kids. Any takers?
Parenting. Wish it came with a manual. What are funny things you've heard yourself say/threaten?
1 comment:
That is hilarious Ang! I"m sure we will be doing the same thing with Ruby when she is a bit older. I love Arrested Development. So many laughs came with that show!
Post a Comment