 “Learning to Share,” “Team Work,” “We Can Dig It!” Oh, the marvelous
names of children’s contemporary videos! Not only do they sport cute
names
, but they also teach valuable lessons such as working together, a
positive attitude, and a general sense of possibility. They support
parents’ efforts to impart to their children moral values. At least,
that is what I thought.
My children have all of these videos, and if they behave, they even get
to watch them occasionally. When my children are having a particularly
hard time being related to one another, I pop in a film which deals
with the issue at hand.
Sibling rivalry flares up in my home on occasion. I am the first one to
admit it is difficult to handle when my eyes are still at half mast and
my morning coffee has only begun to percolate in the background. I
generally squint at my arguing offspring and offer rational reasons for
why my three-year-old should stop crawling across the table to stab his
sister in the eye with the butter knife. Call me crazy, but I expect a
certain amount of order in the morning.
Cooperation is one of those life-long lessons which, when applied,
brings marvelous results. The muppets on Sesame Street think so.
Granted, it took them thirty minutes to work out their differences, but
they got the hang of the sharing and working together thing before you
could say “snack time!” My kids, on the other hand, silenced their
strife long enough to watch the story unfold before them. The moment
the credits rolled, they were back at it.
Inspired by the folks on Sesame Street, I tried to introduce a more
standard understanding of team work in my children’s daily lives.
Watching the blue and purple figures dance across the screen one day, I
thought I might try it again, only this time, we would use a live
example.
First, I showed them all the toys they had strewn on the living room carpet.
“Do you like these toys?” I cooed, sweeping my hand across the array of Barbies, trucks, and building blocks.
“Yes,” my five-year-old daughter Sophia said cautiously. Jackson stood in the corner, blinking with his hand in his mouth.
“Well then,” I began, picking up an empty laundry basket with a
dramatic pause, “you will pick everyone of these toys up, or they will
find their way to Goodwill!”
Adding pressure to the message worked wonders. They quickly tossed all
their toys into the basket and brought the toys to their rooms.
On another, more relaxed occasion, my children put on their caps of
reason and explained what they believed team work meant. My eyes
brightened as my daughter approached me with her solemn gaze.
“Mama,” Sophia remarked, “teamwork means we take the things out, and you put them away…”
Cooperation is a give and take. Now, if only I could get them to realize it doesn’t mean I give and they take!
 Christine Louise Hohlbaum
www.DiaryofaMother.com
American author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff
and SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe (2005), has been
published in hundreds of publications.
|
Community 
