See and Learn

It is not often that life works with you on small lessons you are trying to teach your children. Today it did perfectly!!

We went to the park after I picked Bryce from MDO and before we had to pick up the other two from school. There is a sandbox at this park, and I WILL NOT allow the kids to play in it (or any public sandbox). I had to keep getting on to Bryce and Lilah because they both kept trying to get into it. They finally went away and I was messing with Andrew. I look up and they are both playing with something on the ground. I get up and look around them to see a cat coming up to them. I told them both to get away from the cat and not to touch it. Bryce kept asking why and I told him that we don't play with stray cats because we don't want to make our cat sick if something is wrong with that one - not to mention making yourself sick! He was not happy that he couldn't play with it, but he watched it for a few minutes, said he was going to name the cat Simon (kinda sad - he did look a little like Simon though -our cat that ran away).

He went away, but they kept coming back to where the cat was - and the sandbox! I had just gotten onto them again for getting into the sandbox. Bryce came up and asked AGAIN why he couldn't play in the sandbox. Just as I started to explain that animals pee and poop in the sandbox I looked up to see the cat POOPING in the sandbox! I simply told him to look at what the cat was doing. He turned around and saw the cat and got a disgusted look on his face. "That is a sandbox not a catbox - why his he pooping in there? That is NASTY!!!"

Ever since then he has been repeating, "I am not playing in any sandbox but mine ever again!"

Lesson learned - much quicker and to the point than me trying to explain for the thousandth time why we can't play in public sandboxes!!