Celebration Challenge: A Story about Looking for the Positive

As parents, we're always up against the learning curve of child development.  Our toddlers throw tantrums because they can't talk yet.  Our babies cry when we leave because in their little brains, when we leave we're gone for good.  It's maddening--especially when we're worn out or weary ourselves.   It's tempting to villianize this behavior--to assume it's intentional or passive-aggressive or part of a vast conspiracy to drive us crazy--when the truth is that growing up is a long process.  And kids are learning how to grow up--just like we're learning how to be parents.  If you're not sure it's a necessary part of the process, let me ask you this--when was the last time you had dinner with an adult who kept throwing their food on the floor just to see what would happen next?  I struggle every time I hit this wall, but the truth remains.  Most of the time the old adage is true:  This too will pass.

Part of my parenting challenge has been to find ways to sink into humor and to embrace exactly this moment in my children's development.  When I can manage that, my kids reward me with their best sense of humor, too, and together we can grow up to become the kind of people who are really okay--no matter where we are in the learning curve of life.  Here's a story I wrote in one of those moments, when I finally surrendered to the reality that despite all of our best efforts, my then four and half year old son Carter simply was not able quite yet to hold anything--and I mean anything--without spilling it.   I'm happy to report that he is now an expert non-spiller.  I guess he was waiting for me to take the Celebration Challenge.

Carter and the Super Secret Spilling SuperPower

Once upon a time there lived a boy named Carter Lemen.  By all appearances, he was a very regular boy who did all the things normal boys like to do:  he played with his Legos, he bothered his sister, he told funny knock-knock jokes and he HATED getting water in his ears.

But this boy was anything but regular.

It started one day with his yogurt at breakfast.  One second he was eating quietly and the next there was a glorious glob of lemony goodness all over the table. 

Then there was lunch.  "May I have some milk, please?" he asked.  And sure enough, that mother turned her head and the glass was flipped over in a flash.

And so it happened day after day, night after night, meal after meal until his mother decided Carter was no ordinary boy at all.  This kind of spilling could only mean something special.

Then one day as she watched nearly an ENTIRE GALLON of milk spill out of the bottle onto the floor, it came to her all at once.  Her own son possessed a superpower--a super SPILLING superpower which enabled him to spill anything, anytime, anywhere.  He was, in fact, an amazingly talented spiller.

And in that very moment, she realized Carter must learn to use his superpowers for good and not for evil so the world could be saved.

And that is how Carter became Super Spill Boy to the Rescue.  From that day forward, whenever anyone anywhere needed something spilled--like cups full of pasta into water, or buckets full of water into parched gardens--Super Spill Boy saved the day. 


What's your celebration challenge?