Thursday, July 22, 2010

Choose Your Own Parenting Adventure -- Chocolate Egg Edition

You take your two children (ages 4 and 6) to the store and watch them closely as they attempt to run in separate directions. You let them play for a while with the toys in the toy section as a trade off for letting you accomplish your in-store tasks afterwards.

With your items in hand, you herd your children towards the checkouts. Suddenly, your 4 year old grabs a Kindersurprise chocolate egg and squishes it. Whether this is a desperate attempt to get you to buy it or whether he's trying to free the toy inside is irrelevant -- the chocolate egg has been significantly squished.


If you decide to ignore the fact that he's rendered the chocolate egg unsaleable, put the chocolate egg back on the stand.

If you decide that damaged goods must be paid for, take the chocolate egg to the checkout and pay $1.



As you approach the vehicle you tell your son that in no way does this mean he gets the egg and the toy hidden inside it. However, before you have a chance to make the egg "disappear", your husband has opened the egg. He divides the chocolate egg amongst your 6 year old, the two of you and, in an act of mercy, your 4 year old son. Again you remind your son that the toy will not be his so as not to encourage this chocolate egg squishing behaviour in the future.

If you decide the toy from inside the egg should go to no one, take it home and hide it.

If you decide the toy from inside the egg should go to your 6 year old daughter who was not involved in the crime, pass it to her.



Upon arrival at home and finding out that the toy is clearly not his, your 4 year old has a massive temper tantrum. You realize that he has not been satiated by the sliver of chocolate. It's as if the little plastic bug with velcro on its underside so you can stick it to people's shirts is THE BEST TOY EVER.

If you decide that he is being unreasonably greedy, stick him in his room and shut the door to drown out his screams.

If you decide that he is over-tired, hug him and sing "The Old Rugged Cross" loudly to drown out his screams and help calm you him down.



This was in fact how we spent our evening a couple days ago. In case you didn't already figure it out the second choice was the one I made each time.

Elijah did not calm down till Desiree put an alternate little toy inside the internal plastic egg and gave it to him so he could pretend it was a real chocolate egg toy. I allowed her to do this because 1. he calmed down and 2. it was such a sweet thing for her to do for her brother.

I'm wondering if Elijah has come away from this experience having learned anything... If not, I guess I'll spend my days eating squished chocolate eggs and singing "The Old Rugged Cross"...

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

9 comments:

  1. "The Old Rugged Cross," that's a good old hymn!! It reminds me of home :)

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  2. My boys did something similar yesterday. They both snuck candy onto the grocery conveyor belt, so I paid for it, but didn't realize it until my six year old asked to see the receipt and then pointed out how I had just paid for a milky way. Lucky me. I got a caramel milky way and a package of airheads all to myself. They got time out.

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  3. Nesty Girl, I love it too!

    Julie, was your 6 yr old involved and fessing up by pointing out the receipt or was he turning in his brothers? lol... Yummy for you!

    I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt because those chocolate eggs are very thin shelled...

    Thankfully, on our trip to the grocery store yesterday, Elijah picked up an egg, showed it to me and gently placed it back...

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  4. awww....i loved your story...and kinder eggs! Thank you for stopping by and following me. I'm now following back.

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  5. CinnyBBS, thanks for the sweet words and for following me!

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  6. I've never seen those eggs before. Interesting. :) Loved the blog title. Mike and I were just talking about the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books the other day. :)

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  7. What a cute entry! Frustrating at the time, I have no doubt... But a cute story, none the less. ;)

    I love your muffin tin idea! We'll be trying that tomorrow, I think. As for why GFC was not working, argh... I wish I had an answer for you! I checked it out, and it gave me some kind of error and then worked the second time. I'm not so great at the technical stuff unfortunately.

    Enjoy the rest of your weekend :) Following you now!

    Kristin
    http://born2bemom.blogspot.com

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  8. Thank you for stopping by and commenting on my intervention post...it makes me feel great to know I'm not the only "clingy" mom around. I just love spending time with my sweet little girl, no matter what my friends say. I feel like I see so little of her since I work that I have to make the time I have really count. Hubby and I also do at home "date" nights with Scrabble or just lay in bed and talk and catch up.

    I'm following you back...I loved your post! My parents bring us those chocolate eggs for Lily :)

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  9. Kim, I think there's a law in the US that says there can't be non-edible items inside food.

    How ironic that you guys were talking about those books recently!

    Kristin, everything is funnier in hindsight, huh?

    BWM, I can imagine what you mean feeling like you see so little of your daughter as it is. I say cuddle and spend time together as much as possible!

    Your parents must be Canadian or European (or else they're buying them illegally lol)

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