What if...?

I have figured out that one of my roles as a parent, is to educate. One of my best resources for parenting tips has come from my own experiences.

I have flattened my share of unsuspecting children waiting innocently on the other side of a closed door. Not wanting my poor boy to suffer the same painful and startling end as these other unfortunate little ones, I gave Chase a good warning. He was in the laundry room changing his jeans, right next to the door leading to the garage. Jeff had been going in and out while working on a project. I could see it was an accident waiting to happen. I quickly told Chase that he might want to move over to do his wardrobe switcheroo.

Now, a little incite to Chase. He is constantly throwing out "What if..." questions. For example, if we are a few minutes late for school, I get "What if we were a few HOURS late for school?" If I thank him for eating all of his vegetables, I get "What if I ate ALL of the vegetables in ALL of the world?" If I compliment him on how quickly he tied his shoe, I get "What if I was the fastest shoe-tier ever?" You get the idea. Frankly, I do tire a bit of this game. I have to be pretty spunky to think of a clever enough response to this constant barrage of "what if's".

When I told Chase to slide over to change his pants, he replied with the only response that most 5-year old children tend to generate,

"Why?" he asked.

I quickly told him that his dad would be opening the door any second and it would be very unfortunate if he was standing behind said door.

"Well, it's a good thing that Pepper doesn't know how to open doors."

wait for it....wait for it...and...here it comes:

"What if Pepper knew how to open doors?"

I was on my "A" game. I took the bait.

I wanted to say that wouldn't it be cool if she was like Underdog, 'cause Underdog could open a door. However, as soon as I started to speak, my brain cloud took over and I could not remember the superhero dog's name, to save my life.

"Well, she could only open a door if she was...uh...what is he called...um..."

"A human?"




After I wiped up the water that came spraying out of my mouth, and shooting out of my nose, I came to a good conclusion. It is waaaaay more fun to take the bait. You never know where their responses will take you.