You know those moments where you think, “Hey, the kids are going to love this,” only you don’t get the reaction you expected?
This was one of those times.
The other day the kids and I headed out to the shade of the driveway to wait for their daddy to get home from work. I suggested filling up the water table for them to play in. The 3 year-old grabbed a few cars and said, “Sand in the water table.”
Sure, we could put sand in half of the water table, no problem! I took a bucket and scooped out some sand from the sandbox in the backyard and filled the shallow half of the water table. Then I got the hose to fill the other side with water.
Sand and water – what kid wouldn’t love that? Especially a little boy!
Well, sand in a water table is NOT going to stay dry.
And evidently wet sand was NOT in this preschooler’s master plan.
First he got upset when his sister dribbled a little water from a toy onto the sand. We worked it out where she would play in that spot of sand and he would get the dry area.
Then the dog dared to get a drink (just as I snapped a picture of my “happy” kids).
Well, that was the last straw.
“Bad dog! Don’t like the dog! Her got the sand messy!!!!!”
There was no consoling him. No reasoning about how sand in the water table is going to get wet, no matter how careful you are…
After a good 10 minutes, I finally decided we needed to stop focussing on playing with the cars in the sand. Maybe if the goal was to mix the sand and water???
Mud pies!
That HAD to be a hit, right?
I went inside and got a couple pans, spoons, and plates from the play kitchen. The bucket we use to wash the car got flipped over and became a stove. Peanut started cooking right away!
Her brother?
He continued to sulk over his wet sand, getting a little more upset that now big sister was taking it to mix with water – the horrors!
I opted to ignore the drama and ordered a mud pie, to which Peanut happily delivered.
And you know what? Eventually the little stinker got interested. Oh, he never went into full baking mode, but he did experiment…
…and the drama stopped.
And sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
karen says
Sometimes there’s just no reasoning with them, all you can do is hope they get distracted. Glad the mud pies won him over.
OneMommy says
Definitely – at that age reasoning with them is hard on a good day, much less when things don’t go their way.
Stacey says
I think if you were successful in nixing the drama, then you were indeed successful! I always hate it when activities don’t go as planned. I think kids have a sixth sense about how mom wants it to be and then they do the opposite.
OneMommy says
I have to agree – sometimes I think they have a 6th sense and just want to see what happens when the rain on the parade…
Donna DM Yates says
It was a good solution to the problem. Kudos for the quick thinking.