According to 2,000 parents studied by the American Scientific, the 10 key skills of competent parents, which lead to a strong parent-child bond and children's happiness, are:
1) Love and Affection
2) Stress Management
3) Relationship skills
4) Health
5) Religion
6) Safety
7) Autonomy and independence
8) Education and learning
9) Life skills
10) Behavior management
WRONG! As anyone who has gone through the tail end of a Canadian winter knows, the key skill for children's happiness, the one all parents MUST know, is the ability to find things for them to do on a Sunday afternoon and stave off the dreaded, "Mater, I'm bored!!!". Pater disagrees; he thinks boredom is healthy, and that it leads to creativity. Mater appreciates Pater's 7) but thinks he should keep quiet for his own 6) and if he wants to get 1) from his wife...
Not that finding indoor places sheltered from the arctic chill are always obvious. Okay, true, some places are easy to zone in on. Especially when AJ2 asks to go there daily and sometime hourly...Legoland!
And coming up with a visit to the Science Center doesn't exactly take an Einstein (though being in an exhibit there might)...
Due to logistics and cost, sports events don't always spring to mind with young Avocado Juniors, but when Grandma Toronto won amazing seats at a Raptors Game and couldn't go herself, the promise of popcorn and a Jumbotron helped convince AJ2 that his birthday had come early...
But then what? Toronto is not exactly a hive of kid-friendly locales. Especially not cheap ones! So how to trick Pater into agreeing to part with his greenbacks, when his natural choice would be to use our annual membership to Toronto Zoo (shudder) or to send you Avocado Juniors to the basement (admittedly not exactly a dungeon with all the toys and games in it, but still). Thankfully, someone at Casa Loma, Toronto's Gothic mansion built in the 1910s, came up with the genius of an idea to host a medieval day. Between Pater's love of the place's history and architecture, and you guys' love of swords and dragons, it was a marriage made in nerdy heaven...
(Pater insists that I mention, this is a replica of the throne that the Kings and Queens of England are crowned on. Like Mater said, getting him into Casa Loma was never going to be a challenge...)
Pater normally hates video game arcades, but a sudden ice cold shock to the brain (for charity) temporarily threw him off his senses...
...and so Mater jumped on the opportunity...
But as the weeks dragged on and the snow never ceased, Mater was getting desperate. Which led to the stupid idea of asking Pater for his suggestions. Hence your short period of manual labour this winter, my poor Avocado Juniors...
...which thankfully did not last long once Pater realised that adult supervision was required. Before he retreated into his mantra of "let them get bored", Mater casually mentioned how creativity usually comes from the parents, and what a shame it was that we both lacked creativity. It was just an innocent observation. Nothing more. Imagine Mater's shock when this nonchalant statement triggered what can only be described as a burst of inspirational arts and crafts by Pater that spread over two weekends. First Mater discovered all you Avocado Juniors one Sunday afternoon in the basement, putting stickers on a large board as you filled in the outline of AJ3...
...and then the next Sunday, you were doing the same thing but using paint to fill in AJ1's outline. What could have triggered Pater to come up with such a super creative idea?
After months of outings and activities, Mater has a confession. I'M EXHAUSTED!!! Maybe giving you Avocado Juniors some time to just relax wouldn't be such a bad idea? After all, over stimulating your small brains could adversely affect you in later life. That would certainly impact our strong parent-child bond and impair your happiness. And Mater definitely read somewhere, probably a scientific journal, that TV shows nowadays are very educational...
Why is Pater sniggering?
Posts
