We have these things in a lot of the houses here in the southwest and we call them “pot shelves”.
They are high ledges up by the ceiling, so it’s not a place you can put things you use all the time. It’s more of a display area. You’ll usually find them in most of the main living areas of the house, and occasionally in bedrooms. I hate them. I think it’s just a waste of space that collects dust, which can be problematic when you have a husband and dog with environmental allergies. Don’t get me wrong, some people have that area set up beautifully. I’m not one of those people. They are just something my husband and I find very impractical for our lifestyle and we’ve already decided that when the time comes to build our dream home, you won’t find any in there.
Now that we have that out of the way… One night a few weeks ago, I brought a load of laundry from the dryer to our master bedroom to fold and put away. Our son climbed up on the bed and started jumping around. This caused a slight shift in the pile of clothes I was folding and out of the clean laundry came one of our wool dryer balls. As it rolled away from the laundry, it caught our son’s attention and he grabbed it. “Can I throw this?” He asked. “Sure” I said, thinking it’s just a wool ball and any damage done will be minimal.
I continued folding clothes and our son stood on the bed and kept trying to throw the dryer ball onto the pot shelf in our master bedroom. He missed repeatedly as the ball would hit the wall and roll away from the bed. He would climb down, grab the ball, get back up on the bed and try to throw it over and over again. This was endless entertainment for our toddler while he was burning off energy before bedtime – a parent’s dream. He was finally successful at getting the dryer ball to stay up on the pot shelf. He was full of so much laughter and excitement you would have thought he just won the lottery.
After his success, he climbed off of the bed and ran out of the bedroom. He came back with a handful of other soft items to attempt to throw those up on the shelf as well. Then his dad came home and walked in to find us laughing and playing. Soon enough, my husband was in on this, too.
After our throwing game, I was sitting with my husband at the table while he was eating his late dinner and I said, “don’t let me become the mom that yells at her kid for throwing the ball in the house.” He smiled and let out a little chuckle and said, “yeah, he (our son) really enjoyed that”
I’m going to take my memories of a happy child having a great time in our house over memories of spending time with my son negotiating every activity that may potentially cause the tiniest inconvenience or repairable harm.
Now, I say this because I know what you’re thinking.
- “Her child probably doesn’t listen to the rules, so she gave up enforcing them.”
- “Claire’s child is dangerous!”
- “Her child is obviously out of control!”
- “She’s going to regret this in the future.”
So, when we go to someone else’s house, or anywhere else really, I always have a talk with my son before we go and on the way there. I remind him that this is someone else’s house and they have different rules than we do at our house. If *whoever’s house it is* tells you to not do something, you listen to them, even if it is something you do at our house. This talk differs a little bit from house to house, depending on who’s house we are going to. And if he doesn’t listen to my rules or the rules of the home we are at, he knows it will be time to leave.
Our son is far from getting everything he wants. And I am the first one to jump in for punishment when it is needed. While we certainly have boundaries in our house, a little imaginative play and compassion in a toddlers life can go a long way.
You can follow along with Claire and all her motherhood adventures on Instagram @fromcoffeetocarrots or on Facebook at Be Active – Live Well – Shine Bright.
