We go shopping with you
Today was shopping with the family. I wanted to check out socks and shoes for kickball, Theresa wanted to check out shoes for Ender. This presented a problem. I know some of you have realized what I'm talking about and are sitting at your computers shaking your heads back and forth calling us idiots. For the rest of you, let me tell you about what I like to call - Shopping with a 2 year old.
OK, so not a clever name. However, I believe our implementation is clever. There's only one way to pull it off successfully. It requires a combination of shifts, distraction, little magic, and lots of luck. For example, while Theresa was dealing with Ender's indecisiveness about the two different shades of tan shoes, I walked Bean to look at men's socks. Then, when he started to get impatient, I said "Oh, lets go find mom!" That's actually a game.
Lets find mom®.
Instructions: Fabricate reason why you need to go to a particular place. Go there. Once child is impatient, challenge child to find mom.
So once we get there (after explaining to Bean that the old lady is allowed to look at the glasses because she's going to buy some and not just spin the rack) Theresa takes a quick shift playing "Is your diaper wet?" with Bean while I listened to Ender's story about how he can't decide if he's decided on what shoe yet. Theresa's already up to speed on this so I let her take over once I come up with a new mission for Bean. "Lets go find some shorts."
"I LOOVE these" Bean says of the nastiest burmuda shorts I've ever seen. I grab a pair of shorts that I know I'm not going to buy and say "C'mon, Lets find Mom©". A quick trip across the store (only disrupted by Bean's discovery that the little door to the jewery counter gives off a nice buzz when its opened, "What's that noisy Dad?"), "Oh, Mom doesn't like these, lets go put them back."
Finally Ender decides on the right pair of shoes so I end with a quick under-the-breath comment to Theresa, "Your turn." At last I could get a break and peacefully stroll back to the car with Ender. For a moment I thought about getting him to change his mind and to go with the cooler black and orange shoes, but then I thought I'd end up looking at underwear with Bean. Didn't matter because right after that moment I heard, "Oh! One sec!"
Apparently when I said "Your turn" to Theresa it meant, "your turn to shop." We had to come up with a new meaning for our little game. Now its called - "Lets get Mom™: Away from Shopping Edition".
OK, so not a clever name. However, I believe our implementation is clever. There's only one way to pull it off successfully. It requires a combination of shifts, distraction, little magic, and lots of luck. For example, while Theresa was dealing with Ender's indecisiveness about the two different shades of tan shoes, I walked Bean to look at men's socks. Then, when he started to get impatient, I said "Oh, lets go find mom!" That's actually a game.
Lets find mom®.
Instructions: Fabricate reason why you need to go to a particular place. Go there. Once child is impatient, challenge child to find mom.
So once we get there (after explaining to Bean that the old lady is allowed to look at the glasses because she's going to buy some and not just spin the rack) Theresa takes a quick shift playing "Is your diaper wet?" with Bean while I listened to Ender's story about how he can't decide if he's decided on what shoe yet. Theresa's already up to speed on this so I let her take over once I come up with a new mission for Bean. "Lets go find some shorts."
"I LOOVE these" Bean says of the nastiest burmuda shorts I've ever seen. I grab a pair of shorts that I know I'm not going to buy and say "C'mon, Lets find Mom©". A quick trip across the store (only disrupted by Bean's discovery that the little door to the jewery counter gives off a nice buzz when its opened, "What's that noisy Dad?"), "Oh, Mom doesn't like these, lets go put them back."
Finally Ender decides on the right pair of shoes so I end with a quick under-the-breath comment to Theresa, "Your turn." At last I could get a break and peacefully stroll back to the car with Ender. For a moment I thought about getting him to change his mind and to go with the cooler black and orange shoes, but then I thought I'd end up looking at underwear with Bean. Didn't matter because right after that moment I heard, "Oh! One sec!"
Apparently when I said "Your turn" to Theresa it meant, "your turn to shop." We had to come up with a new meaning for our little game. Now its called - "Lets get Mom™: Away from Shopping Edition".
