Does your kiddo have an item that has just “become” an essential family member?
Where you will do anything to keep this item safe?
Both our kids do, actually.
Jonny has had a stuffed Darth Vader (“Darthy”) that has gone EVERYWHERE with Jonny since he was 4 years old. (He’s now 12)
But even a newly acquired ordinary “thing,” can become a vital piece of sanity.
Jonah recently latched on to a “Lego Guy.”
Lego Guy was really nothing special. He was a red “Roblox” action figure about an inch and a half tall.
He’s a toy we have had in the house for ages, but Jonah just happened to find him that morning.
Jonah had already been playing with him for hours when we decided to take a trip to the beach.
And of course, Jojo took him with us to the beach…
…And then lost him at the beach.
Well… let me rephrase that. He didn’t actually “lose” him.
🤔
Jonah dramatically hurled Lego Guy into the sea and waves and walked away.
🙄😒
And I thought that was it for Lego Guy.
I assumed Lego Guy was something Jojo no-longer wanted so I “let him go.”
Well…(Hours later and the sun setting)
You can guess what happened…
As soon as I said “it’s time to go,” Jonah immediately screamed “LEGO GUY!” and started running up the beach nearly half a mile to where he had surreptitiously launched this tiny little action figure into the great big sea.
Apparently, he assumed the ocean would “give his lego guy back?” 🤷♂️
But… I mean, it’s a PRETTY BIG OCEAN and there was zero percent chance we would find it.
We spent countless hours searching. It was getting late.
Jonah refused to budge without Lego Guy.
We needed to go home.
I could not manage a meltdown on a rock-covered beach, a half-mile from the car.
I needed a redirect.
But, like, the beach is currently his GO-TO redirect, and we were already there.
I seriously contemplated just waiting him out until nightfall and just saying, “Welp. It’s night time now. Let’s go home.”
But that doesn’t always work… and it can sometimes even make things WORSE.
So my options were to let Jonah know that Lego Guy went “bye bye” and “don’t throw your toys in the ocean if you want to keep them and natural consequences, etc…” which would result in a 95% chance of a meltdown.
Or…
I wait until nightfall and THEN tell him “It’s dark. It’s time to go get ready for bed,” and hope it makes a difference. Nighttime/bedtime routines also need adherence. I’d put that outcome at maybe a 75% chance of meltdown without Lego Guy…
…but in the dark. 😳
Not good.
I suppose we could just sleep on the beach.🙄
It was about this point when Mama called and informed me that she was getting off work and to see if there was anything we needed.
WHY YES! YES, THERE INDEED WAS!
I told her about our situation and she said she could just run to the store and get another one.
This isn’t always successful because sometimes it has to be THIS EXACT ONE, (not one that looks like it).
But at least it was another option. It gave me an idea for another possible redirect. I told Mama to FaceTime us from the store. That way, I could show Jojo that we could just get another “Lego Guy” and Mama would meet us at home with him and things would be okay.
🤔
I’d give it a 50/50 chance of meltdown.
Good enough for me. 🤷♂️
But sure enough, as soon as Jojo saw Mama was at the store and was getting another Lego Guy, he immediately headed back to the car. (WIN!)
There was even still a sliver of daylight left.
When we got home, we found Mama had gotten a whole box of new “Lego Guys” just for Jonah.
He was so happy.
Whew.😰
Sometimes these little ordinary items can become family members…
Why?
Because our kids see them as family members. And they will bend over backwards for these little cheap plastic things.
And so we will do the same for them.
We run to the store in a panic and then FaceTime our kids from the store showing us buying the “family member” again. We stock up on these things so we never lose them again. We have extras ON-HAND!
Anything to make our kids happy.
Anything to KEEP our kids happy.
And that night, Jonah was.
(That is, until bedtime…
…when he lost the tiny Lego gun to one of the EIGHT action figures.)
😫😆😭
Do you or your kiddo have an “essential item,” that you basically now see as a family member?
What is it, and what outlandish things have you done for/because of this “family member?”