Can you hear that? The unoiled hinges on the door to my brain are working overtime to open said door. I am headed inside because I need to write some new stuff. So, I’ve made myself a cappuccino, put my feet up on an available bench, and leaned back in my office chair in order to optimize my maximum writing experience.
I don’t know how old each person is who might be reading this “The Other Day…”, but I was wondering… do you remember when you were a child, and you would cry at the drop of a hat, and then commence that whimpering thing you would do? I can see in my mind’s eye some child doing that, and I think to myself, “That is sooooo cute!” So, what happened to being able to do that and get away with it? We could do it when we were little, and yet, somewhere along the way, we grew out of it. WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?? We were so cute back then, weren’t we? Someone would dry our nose, and as we would whimper, they would pat our back and look at us with those understanding eyes and tell us everything would be okay. Sometimes, don’t you wish you could go back to those days? I mean, wouldn’t it be nice if once in a while, as adults, someone would give us a pat on the back and tell us everything would be ok? We all could use some of that about now, couldn’t we?
However, seems like once you turn the corner of ten-years-old, that cute little whimpering thing is long gone. In fact, if you try it, people no longer find it cute. It is now annoying to other people. So, again, I was wondering… once children lose that sniffling thing, what do they substitute for it? Simple, there is great value placed on someone who can give great pout face, don’t you think?? That’s right, let your child or significant other (age is not a factor) not get their own way about something, and they can break out that devastatingly effective lower lip and put on a good “pout face”. Well, when that happens, I, for one, am done. I can’t help it. I can’t seem to resist it.
All of my wife’s siblings can give you that lower lip on demand. I’d be willing to bet a bag of sugar-free chocolate (the only kind I am supposed to have in the house) that several of you out there know exactly what I’m talking about. If you have children and you put your foot down, first, you will get tears. That doesn’t work on you, and your foot is still down. Next, you get the whimper thing. Still, the foot is firmly planted on the ground. You refuse to budge. Then, out comes that lower lip and the pouting begins. Not to be outdone, you give them one of your famous stare glares. Alas, it’s too late, because they go from pout face back to the tears and the whimpering, and before you know it, you turn to mush. You pick up your child and comfort them and say to yourself, “Curses, foiled again.”
I may not have been able to explain the fine art of whimpering here, but I think I have given children a good road map to getting their own way. BETTER NOT LET THEM READ THIS ESSAY!! We, parents, have to stick together, right?
Hey, until next time, love your children as much as you can. MUH!!
