Friday, March 18, 2011

Doodle: Fear is Healthy

Most people's kids are afraid of the vacuum. Somehow, the parents of these kids think this is a bad thing. They (the parents) are very careful to warn their kids about what they're going to do (clean the house, like good parents) and/or hide their kids and pretend vacuuming doesn't exist and is not, in fact, a healthy habit.

I'm here to tell you, kids who are afraid of the vacuum are a blessing. It is very difficult to successfully clean your carpets (without injuring anyone) like this:



How I ended up with TWO kids who adore the vacuum, I have no idea. But I find myself similarly hiding my vacuuming habits from my kids, if for completely different reasons. That was the case until recently anyway.

Nowadays Darcie has a healthy fear of the vacuum. Why?
Well...



Now, before you call child services, just take a minute to look at the first image. My kids LOVE the vacuum. They play with it when it's out. They hug it like it's a friend. When I'm using it, they want to stick their fingers under it (I don't let them).

What led to this traumatizing experience was a slow progression of efforts to make my daughter laugh. First I put the vacuum on my hand, then on hers. Her whole face lit up. She thought it was hilarious. Then I tickled her side with the vacuum hose. Also hilarious.

Then...well, her cheeks are just so cute and chubby! Again, I showed her what would happen on me first. Then I tentatively went in for it...bad, bad mommy! Oops.

Thankfully Darcie seems to have handled the whole experience well. Instead of screaming or hiding when I use the vacuum she just quietly turns and walks away. Now if only I could get Liam to do the same... ;)

4 comments:

  1. My kids love the vacume too LOL but Parker did go through a stage where he didn't I just give him the small harmless vacuum and let him clean up the hallway :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. think i met my laugh quota for the month with this one. that's awesome! i've currently got Elliot tricked into thinking vacuuming his room is fun - if you can't get Liam off the vacuum maybe try giving him the handle and just letting him push it everywhere ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah I keep hoping I can find a vacuum his size. That would be AWESOME.

    ReplyDelete