Green Apple Soap
May. 30th, 2008 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewday A few weeks ago, my wife brought home a decorative soap dispenser that had been sent to her unit for nurse's recognition week by the hospital's gift shop. It's the color and shape of a green apple and the soap has a green apple scent. She thought she'd give it to Little Jay to help him remember to wash his hands after using the bathroom and at bedtime and before eating.
For whatever reason, this has become a battle of wits between himself and whoever happens to be the supervising adult. When it first started, he would come downstairs from using the bathroom, be asked if he'd washed his hands, answer "yes" and be on his way. With a barely-concealed grin that lurked in his eyes and the corners of his mouth and that said, "Ha-ha, I won this time."
Then the adults would listen for the water being run in the bathroom sink. (The water pipes to the second floor are in the wall between the living and dining rooms, so you can hear when it's being used.) He may have been sent back upstairs twice on the evidence that no one heard the water run. After that, he'd simply run a short blast of water into the sink on his way downstairs. Again with the ha-ha grin.
But his grandmother has raised four kids, including the little boy's dad, and is a past master at finding non-punitive ways of getting compliance from wiley kids. So she told him that from now on she would just ask to smell his hands, when he came downstairs, and she'd be able to tell from the green apple scent if he'd really washed them. Ha-ha yerself!
But she also knows how much he loves things that he can identify as his own and figured that would be the thing that made the difference. And I think the evidence shows that she's right. For one thing, the level in the green apple dispenser has dropped incrementally over the past several weeks.
For another, Little Jay and his aunt Sarah were watching a movie before he went to bed the other night. When Sarah got up to use the bathroom, he asked where she was going. He then reminded her to be sure and wash her hands. And to use soap.
Then there's a pause and he says, "But don't use mine. It's in the green apple!"
For whatever reason, this has become a battle of wits between himself and whoever happens to be the supervising adult. When it first started, he would come downstairs from using the bathroom, be asked if he'd washed his hands, answer "yes" and be on his way. With a barely-concealed grin that lurked in his eyes and the corners of his mouth and that said, "Ha-ha, I won this time."
Then the adults would listen for the water being run in the bathroom sink. (The water pipes to the second floor are in the wall between the living and dining rooms, so you can hear when it's being used.) He may have been sent back upstairs twice on the evidence that no one heard the water run. After that, he'd simply run a short blast of water into the sink on his way downstairs. Again with the ha-ha grin.
But his grandmother has raised four kids, including the little boy's dad, and is a past master at finding non-punitive ways of getting compliance from wiley kids. So she told him that from now on she would just ask to smell his hands, when he came downstairs, and she'd be able to tell from the green apple scent if he'd really washed them. Ha-ha yerself!
But she also knows how much he loves things that he can identify as his own and figured that would be the thing that made the difference. And I think the evidence shows that she's right. For one thing, the level in the green apple dispenser has dropped incrementally over the past several weeks.
For another, Little Jay and his aunt Sarah were watching a movie before he went to bed the other night. When Sarah got up to use the bathroom, he asked where she was going. He then reminded her to be sure and wash her hands. And to use soap.
Then there's a pause and he says, "But don't use mine. It's in the green apple!"
