Skip to main content

Kids Don't Read Directions



For Christmas, my son received a cool car drawing kit. It came with a small light box, colored pencils and some really great car templates. The templates are made of clear plastic and when he places them on the light box, he can trace them onto a piece of paper and viola- he has an amazing vehicle to color.

He also received a booklet of coupons. (All of my kids do at Christmas-it's become sort of a tradition.) Inside the coupon book (which is hand made) they get a bunch of free passes for stuff (mostly 'time doing something' and some have 'time with a grown-up'). The coupon's are a way for the kids to land a parent, on the spot, and sit down and play...It forces the parent to say yes, and drop everything, instead of a half-reply of 'maybe', 'not now' or 'later'.

This weekend, I was couponed.

And he wanted us to use his new drawing set.

As we began to create our cars, I used the templates in the way I saw they were meant to be used. He on the other hand, stayed with his own rendition of how it was supposed to be used. His little pictures were adorable, and all so much cooler than mine (he'd clearly been practicing), but as I inspected the car templates closely, I noticed he had not yet use the template in a variety of other ways that were offered.

Sad, I thought.

So, I brought it to his attention.

He was puzzled at first, then all at once he became flabbergasted!
He was stunned when he realized he now had about twenty five more ways to create these cars!

This was funny, but then again, it wasn't funny at all.

It reminded me, that just because a child gets an age appropriate gift, doesn't mean he knows how to use it to it's fullest potential.

It reminded me also, that this was the exact reason why I gave him the 'time coupons'.

I'm a busy parent, and as much as I know my kids need me to sit down with them, I don't always do it as often as I should. (I know better... but time gets away from me and good intentions are sometimes lost.)

Since our play-date this afternoon, he and his older sister have been tracing new cars and coloring them for hours using the newly introduced ideas.

That right there proved to me that those coupons were so worth it...

Because Mommy stopped what she was doing, sat down, and played...and it was a good thing.... because kids don't always read directions.

What little things do you do to help you to stop, sit and play with your kids?


Popular posts from this blog

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! '  to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

Good Customer Service At Home

Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best  if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.