So Mama ordered a “plyo box jump.”
Now I have no idea what this thing is.
I had to look it up and…(Holy crap! Do you know how expensive these things are? It’s just a freaking WOODEN BOX!)
Anyway, it arrived today.
It came in a big cardboard box. Jonah loves big boxes. Big boxes means big presents. (Or at least the possibility of one).
When I opened it, the first thing I noticed was how heavy this thing was.
Wow. I mean… I know it has to withstand some beatings but… holy cow.
It was also in pieces.
…Six pieces to be exact.
…And a whole bunch of screws and an Allen wrench.
There were really no directions so I figured it was pretty straight forward.
Put boards together. Put screws in holes. Use Allen wrench and tighten.
Thirty-six times.
😒
As I started assembling it, I noticed Jonah becoming more and more interested in what I was doing.
He was watching every turn of the wrench. Every placement of each screw.
I had gotten 2 or 3 put in when it occurred to me. Jonah is 6 now. This is a task he could help me with.
“Do you want to help, buddy?”
“…Help, buddy?.” Jonah replied. (Jonah doesn’t really say ‘yes,’ but he will repeat your question back to you to indicate in the affirmative).
So I handed him a screw and the wrench.
They fit together like puzzle pieces so it wasn’t difficult for Jonah to figure it out.
First he did one screw. Then he did two… then three…
…Then seven… eight…
By about the tenth screw, Jojo’s stamina started to wane.
It gets difficult at the end when the screws need a little extra “elbow grease” to fully tighten.
He became more interested in the packaging and less interested in the “building.”
He started ripping the packaging styrofoam and popping the packaging bubbles, dropping the screws and Allen wrench.
When he finally left the room entirely, I figured he was done with helping, so I took over where he left off.
I honestly have no idea how many screws I put in. It could have been two. It could have been a dozen.
I DO remember vividly Jonah’s reaction to me “finishing up his work.”
He screamed “ALL DONE, DADDY!” and ran over and slapped me.
Instant ‘escalation.’
When I tried to redirect him back to building, He screamed “Nooooo!” And started pounding on the box.
He picked it up and threw it. He had no care where it went. It landed at my feet.
Six inches farther to the left and it would have gone straight through the sliding glass door.
“Dada, I WANT SPACE!!!” (Daddy Get Out so I can rage alone without you) he screamed at me.
But I couldn’t just leave. He could hurt himself. He could break something.
And I didn’t have the slightest idea why.
So I tried to calm him down. “I know buddy… what do you want?”
It took him a second or two to formulate the word.
“OFF!!!”
Do you want the screws off?
“SCREWS OFF!!!”
OH! I GET IT NOW. He wasn’t done yet. And by me ‘helping him,’ I had “contaminated” the work.
So I had to take those screws back out.
The problem was, I didn’t know how many I had put in. I doubted Jonah remembered either.
I started to backtrack my work…trying to get as close as possible to how it was when he left.
Turns out, Jonah didn’t actually CARE …because he now wanted ALL the screws back out.
Okay…
At this point, Jonah was like a pot of water boiling over and I just needed to get him to calm down a bit, so I took all the screws out.
“DADA, I WANT SPACE!!”
But now, the box wouldn’t stay together without me holding on to it. So I tried to angle the closest thing I had at my disposal to lean the box against.
A wooden toy box lid.
I wish I had used a pillow or a stuffed animal or a freaking goose down comforter because Jonah took that toy box lid and started beating the ever-loving piss out of it.
At least there was SOME padding on it.
He threw it all across the play room. He slammed it into the ground.
I tried to redirect him by showing him the screws and the wrench all ready for him.
He picked up a handful of screws and scattered them into the wind.
Then he went back to work on the toy box lid.
Hitting it, kicking it. (I think he even bit it once) screaming all the while.
It broke.
The toy box lid was padded, but it was made of wood. And Jonah is a strong kid.
I could hear the wood splintering with each slam.
“DADA I WANT SPACE!!”
I couldn’t just leave him there like that. He was right next to the sliding glass door. And aside from the toy box lid, there were now six heavy boards at his disposal and he could unleash them at any time.
But I could try to redirect his anger… or at least point it in a less dangerous direction.
Like at me.
So I moved to the opposite side of him, away from the sliding glass door and kept engaged with him knowing full-well how he would react.
Luckily, he never moved on to the heavier boards.
He hit me and kicked me, and threw the toy box lid, but eventually he wore himself out.
It’s like a switch flipped after 45 minutes or so and he was fine. He ate a bit of lunch and we left for Grammy and Papas’ house. I hadn’t planned on going there, but Jonah needed a “reset.”
Jonah actually asked if we could go.
When we returned in the evening, the “box” was still there in the play room, pieces scattered everywhere.
I asked Jonah if he would like to try again.
He said he would.
He helped me gather all the screws back up, he let me piece the box back together and he started working on it again.
He even asked for help when it got too hard to push.
Sometimes, we will fail. Sometimes we need to try again. Sometimes we just need a “reset” to succeed.
It took a lot of time and patience for both of us, but Jonah persisted through the adversity.
Even when it got hard. Even when it got frustrating.
All 36 screws.
Mama’s plyo box was sitting there just waiting for Mama when she got home from work.
Jonah put it all together himself.
#ausome