Dear Marshall,
I recently wrote a post about how difficult your sister can be. Well, she’s not the only one. You don’t always want to do what you’re supposed to do either. It’s normal for a kid your age, but boy, it’s tough sometimes! How do you force a little boy to do something he really doesn’t want to do? Threats and punishments? Yeah, sometimes. But those aren’t much fun, and they can’t be used all the time. For the small, everyday issues, we’ve had to find other ways to motivate you, such as . . .
- The Sauce Ploy: You don’t care for unfamiliar food. I’ve tried a lot of tricks for getting you to try new foods, but only a few have worked. The Sauce Ploy is one of the most successful. I still remember the first time I used it. I was eating hummus and I offered some to you. You wouldn’t touch it. But when I told you it was “sauce,” suddenly you were willing to try it. And you loved it! You kept coming back for more, dipping your baby carrot in the hummus and then running to the other room to eat it. You were so cute! Since then we’ve gotten you to eat a number of other sauce-like foods and condiments, and I consider the Sauce Ploy to be one of my best tricks.
- The Arugula Game: Your father gets the credit for this wonderfully simple, yet effective, game. We take out a few pieces of arugula, or any other salad green, and we say, “Marshall, don’t eat that!” You grab the greens with glee and slowly move them toward your mouth. We pretend to be horrified, especially when you start chewing them. We say things like, “Oh, no! Poor arugula! I can’t believe you ate it!” You think this game is the funniest thing ever.
- Bedtime Armor: Getting you to put on your pajamas at night used to be a chore, so we told you that alligators would bite you while you slept unless you were wearing your Alligator Armor (a.k.a. footie jammies). It might sound like a terrible thing to tell a child, but you were fascinated by alligators and loved anything to do with them. We still use this game almost every night in some variation. Once your armor is on, your dad and I pretend to be alligators. We gently bite your arm and then we act like it tastes awful. Ptooey! You love that. And we have other variations of the game for when you’re bored with alligators. There’s Skunk Armor (to keep the skunks from stinking you up while you sleep) and there’s also Invisibility Armor (which makes you invisible if you put your hands on your head, but only until the invisibility batteries wear out).
- Alligators in the Potty: For a while you couldn’t be bothered to go to the potty. You’d wait and wait until you were dancing to hold it in. Sometimes you’d wait too long. So we started pretending that there were alligators in the potty that could only be removed by peeing on them. We’d say, “Go pee on the alligators!” And you would!
These games that we invented out of desperation are sometimes the highlights of the day. It surprises me, but it shouldn’t, because I find more and more that happiness is a state of mind. It stands to reason that fun is, too. Approach life with a sense of humor and a willingness to be amused, and you will probably have lots of fun. Remember that, because it’s probably the best trick of all.
Love,
Mom