Friday, July 29, 2011

Our First Tea Party

The morning started out like any other, but out of nowhere something amazing happened.  I woke up at 7:00AM sharp to the sound of the toddler alarm clock (which is very effective and always early).  I went to my daughter's room to get her changed and then we went to wake mommy up for work with lots of hugs and tickles.  Mommy wanted to go back to sleep, so I took my little girl downstairs for breakfast.  After breakfast, I showed her some new toys.  She has a little toy oven that her grandmother got her a few weeks back, and this morning, I showed her how to put the pots and pans on the toy stove to make the noises like frying and boiling.



I showed her how to make eggs and bacon, bake a cake and even how to wash the dishes in her little play sink. I wasn't quite ready for what happened next.  I showed her how to pour tea from the kettle into the cup.  Then I pretended to stir in some sugar, and finally, I took a sip.  As I put the cup down, she picked up the kettle and did the exact same thing! Even with sipping sounds!  I fully understand that it is normal for a child of her age to repeat actions quickly and then lose interest.  However, she continued to pretend play "tea party" for the next fifteen minutes.  My daughter and I had our first tea party on a Thursday morning at 8AM in our PJ's.  I showed her how to "make biscuits" by placing the tray in the oven, and she incorporated that into the routine.  Mommy came downstairs and our baby served her tea and biscuits.  Then we set up some stuffed animals right there on the living room floor, and she served each and every one of them tea and biscuits, making sippy sounds when they drank their tea.

I know this was the first of many tea parties to come.  And I can't wait until we bring up the Little Tikes play kitchen out of the basement with all of the pretend food!  We'll get to play grocery store and restaurant, and then we'll advance to "Hell's Kitchen" where I'll be chef Ramsay, and she'll cook Wellington and risotto and I'll tell her it "looks like baby vomit!" and I'll send it back.  I can't wait...  Not a good idea, you say?  I only want my daughter to be the best, and while Ramsay's methods are a bit unorthodox, he does make people better at what they do.  They may hate themselves and jump off of bridges later, but not everyone is equipped to handle the pressure cooker he creates in the kitchen.

Honestly, I'm not that kind of parent, and I don't really like those kind of parents at all.  You know, the parent that yells at their kid for an error on the baseball field, but doesn't praise him for the great hit he gets later in the game.  It's not even the yelling that bothers me because that is a perfectly legitimate, although some would argue ineffective, strategy for raising your child.  What bothers me is the lack of praise with all of the negative yelling.  There should be equal yelling of praise for the times when your child does something great.  If you're going to be a yeller, at lease yell equally for good and bad.  I can't change your methods, but hopefully, you can see the value of a balanced approach to that method.  What were we talking about?

Right, my first tea party with my daughter.  This moment was so special that I told her I would play tea party with her whenever she wants, as long as she promises never to actually join the Tea Party.  Hey, don't judge!  At least I know how to compromise!

6 comments:

  1. Outstanding! At least she hasn't started cooking her Fisher Price People like mine...lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. hopefully you mean pretend cooking and not ACTUALLY cooking them... i do hope. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice Reverse-Parenting, comrade. You seem to be a father who knows who's in charge.

    ReplyDelete
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