TWO CRUEL THINGS GOOD PARENTS SOMETIMES DO

One cruel thing good parents sometimes do to their little children is remove the child’s slip-on sweater or shirt in one pull. The child may be half-asleep when this happens, and hardly knows what’s happening to him. His hair is messed up, he may feel as if his eyelashes disappeared, and an elbow might have got caught and was yanked out. There is a kinder way for this maneuver: remove one sleeve at a time and slip the sweater gently over the head. An additional cuddle would be good too.

While the above may happen quickly and perhaps the child forgets it in sleep, the next one is worse.

You be the child in this one. You are almost three years old. You are going to an office building with your parents. The van is parked four blocks away. Each of your parents is holding on to one of your hands so that they can hurry and you won’t slow them down. Four blocks is a long time for you to be holding both of your little arms straight up in the air.

Try it sometimes. Four blocks without let-up, not a hint of bending your elbows. See how you like it. ♥