Let's pretend.

I tried out this method the other day when I was frustrated with the fact that it seems like my evening is spent picking up toys that I do not play with. Granted, it's been a hard habit to implement, maybe because we're not always great at it with our own stuff! Unfortunately, The Boss does not possess a need for tidiness. So, instead of getting upset about the toy store that exploded in my house, I said "Hey! Let's pretend you have a super power that makes you put away your toys really fast!" Surely this would work. She's always pretending and she loves to be a super hero! But didn't that stinker reply, "Nah, I'm just a girl. Just a kid."

But curiously, after I made the suggestion of making this task fun, she was completely cooperative, even if she did not have a super power at the time. After one task was complete she asked "Ok, what's next?", and in no time we had everything cleaned up. This has worked out almost every time I've made a request.

Win.

I hear that age 3 is the new Terrible 2, but I see no evidence of that. On the contrary, my days-away-from-3 little lady has been so polite and cooperative that I don't even recognize her sometimes. "Mama, you're a good cooker" or "Mama, you're a good knitter" or "Mama you're a good hugger" or "thank you for playing Memory with me. I just want to give you a hug and a kiss" makes me melt and check my hearing at the same time.

This is how they get a shiny, new car at age 16, right?

Wonder how this super power pretending thing would work on husbands picking up their socks from the floor of their side of the bed? Just wonderin' about that purely hypothetical situation.