No Poopy Pancakes for Me!

I did it last week...I am ready to try it again. So this week, my pick for Mama Kat’s Writers Workshop…#1 – “Describe the best/most creative punishment you have ever given your children or received yourself.” It will have to be something I have done to deeply damage my own children for life, as I was a perfect angel. No, really, my dad was a cop and I HATE getting in trouble.

No Poopy Pancakes for Me!

My son is persistent, insistent, and stubborn. Good thing he is cute as a button, bright, and likes to snuggle. He is the kind of kid, however that needs examples. I couldn’t just tell him not to pinch (he knows this…now); he needed evidence that it was bad…why it was wrong. So, yes, I did pinch hit to prove my point (no need to call CPS!). This leads me to the tale of the Poopy Pancakes…

My daughter had just been born and my (then) six year old couldn’t get enough of her. Her dad (aka my hubby) was a freak about everything (still is) – for the record, I am not. There was hand-sanitizing and hand-washing being enforced 24/7 in this house. Hubby was constantly asking: Did you wash your hands? Are you sure you are feeling OK? Did you use hot water when you washed that bottle? As if, I was going to go through labor to give my kid a funky disease by not washing properly.

Being the boy he is, Joe didn’t like to wash his hands – at one time he did, but I am not sure what happened. One bright and cheery day he finishes with his business in the bathroom and I can hear him…he does not wash his hands and comes jumping into the room chanting, “I want to hold my sister! I want to hold my sister!” I ask’ “Did you wash your hands?” Silence. “Go back and wash, then you can hold her.” Protests and screaming ensue (just a little trouble adjusting to not being the one-and-only). Then as if timed perfectly, Jules poops - a teeny, tiny, smelly, new baby poop.

I change her diaper and by this time Joe has changed directions…he wants a pancake…“I am hungry…NOW!!!” This lovely sound continues while I change Jules...and then I had my “A-Ha! Moment.”

I finish my business, put Jules down in the crib and tell Joe to come with me. We go into the kitchen and I began pulling out the items we need for pancakes. He looks at me, “Aren’t you going to wash you hands?” I am dumbfounded – this might actually work - a brilliant mom  moment to never be forgotten! “No” I say. “If poopy hands are fine for your sister, then poopy pancakes should be fine for you.”

Like a flash he was gone…to the bathroom, water a runnin’. He always washes his hands now.