Parenting tip for the day

Just because your child is playing quietly, does NOT mean he or she is not getting into trouble.

For example: John had been happily playing upstairs and I was kind of relieved that he wasn’t here making a mess while I was cleaning the kitchen. Soon, however, he came downstairs with his sad little face and showed me that his finger was bleeding. When I put his band-aid on, I noticed that his hands were covered in glitter. “What have you been doing, John?” He did not want to tell me, but said that he would whisper it in my ear. Hmmm. This could be bad. “I broke a snowglobe,” he said. I decided I’d better go and investigate.

The problem was, I couldn’t tell which of the disasterous bedrooms he had ravaged. They all looked like a tasmanian devil had been there. I called to him and asked him to come and show me where the snow globe was. Reluctantly he came upstairs and showed me the broken snowglobe. It was indeed broken, and there was water, glitter and glass shards covering pretty much everything. I sent him back downstairs so I could clean this one up on my own. Yes, I cut myself in the process, too.

So, my friends, just because your child is quiet (or even singing, in the case of my friend’s little girl), never assume for one minute that they aren’t getting into trouble.