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Hurricane Gareth
Aug. 29th, 2011 01:11 amWe have succeeded at teaching Gareth that when he chooses to take an action, he also chooses its consequences.
Being three years old, he has overgeneralized this to mean that, whenever he wants to take an action, that must mean he also wants its consequences, which leads to odd assertions like, "But I want the dentist to drill my teeth," and "But I want fall down on the rocks," and, most frustrating of all, "But I want to get hit by a car."
So when we told him he couldn't open all the windows of the house during the hurricane, he said, "But I want the wind to come in. I want the house to blow down. I am the big bad wolf, and I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow our house in!"
Upon which he ran over to the kitchen wall and quite earnestly blew with all his might. Somehow I managed not to burst out laughing, which he tends to find very upsetting when he's in earnest.
Anyhow, we got through the storm just fine. We're feeling pretty good about our extensive preparations, though we ended up not needing them. There are plenty of hurricane names left in the alphabet for this year. New Jersey's a mess, our county's a mess, the disasters around us are real. Our neighborhood is on relatively high ground, and we got lucky. Next time, next several times, who knows?
Before the storm, Gareth built a fairy shrine on our porch from carefully piled leaves and sticks. Today he pointed to the tallest tree across the street and declared, "That's where the fairies have the best view, for keeping an eye on our house." Cool. All help is appreciated.
Being three years old, he has overgeneralized this to mean that, whenever he wants to take an action, that must mean he also wants its consequences, which leads to odd assertions like, "But I want the dentist to drill my teeth," and "But I want fall down on the rocks," and, most frustrating of all, "But I want to get hit by a car."
So when we told him he couldn't open all the windows of the house during the hurricane, he said, "But I want the wind to come in. I want the house to blow down. I am the big bad wolf, and I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow our house in!"
Upon which he ran over to the kitchen wall and quite earnestly blew with all his might. Somehow I managed not to burst out laughing, which he tends to find very upsetting when he's in earnest.
Anyhow, we got through the storm just fine. We're feeling pretty good about our extensive preparations, though we ended up not needing them. There are plenty of hurricane names left in the alphabet for this year. New Jersey's a mess, our county's a mess, the disasters around us are real. Our neighborhood is on relatively high ground, and we got lucky. Next time, next several times, who knows?
Before the storm, Gareth built a fairy shrine on our porch from carefully piled leaves and sticks. Today he pointed to the tallest tree across the street and declared, "That's where the fairies have the best view, for keeping an eye on our house." Cool. All help is appreciated.
