Master Manipulator

Sometimes, I'm that mom. You know, the one who lets her kids do things that seem all harmless fun for me but that other parents cringe at, hoping against hope that their kids don't notice what mine are doing.

Let me give you an example.

Today, the wee ones had no school (again), so we spent our morning at the Kohl's Children's Museum again. We always have a great time, and the membership makes the price right!

One of the Little Miss's favorite things to do is get her face painted. She likes for me to paint it for her, poor dear. My artistic skills leave a bit to be desired. Fortunately, she's happy with the butterfly that I painted. It's really that or a happy face.

The problem came in when she noticed what Mister Man was doing. For the first time ever (and this leads me to think that possibly everything we've been doing for the past four years is really having an impact on his development and sensory issues, yay!), he wanted his face painted, and he did it all himself while I was helping Little Miss.



He calls that masterpiece "Two Face" after the villain. We're way into superheroes right now. You'll notice that one half of his face is all scary and painted up and the other is totally normal. You'll also notice that he chose - of his own volition with no prompting from me - a gorgeous Vikings sweatsuit to wear today.

And in our family, of course.... Monkey See, Monkey Do.



The problem came in when Little Miss decided it would be fun to paint my face, too. Since I have nowhere I need to be for the rest of the day and it is water soluble crayon (read: very easily removable), what's the harm?

I'll admit that I did have a moment of paranoia that with my face painted this way I'd get pulled over on the way home and have to explain my face to a police officer, but I didn't let that deter me. She spent a good ten or so minutes fixing my face up right. See?



As we were leaving, Little Miss decided she had to go potty (yay, good girl!). As we were washing our hands, a girl around five or so said to her mom:

Wow, so mommies can get their faces painted, too?
Her Mom: Well, I guess so.
Little Girl: Can I paint your face, Mommy?
Her Mom: Not today, but maybe next time.
Little Girl: Why not?
Her Mom: We're in the process of leaving right now, so we don't have time to do it today.
Little Girl: Please?
Her Mom: Not today. We've had such a good day playing in the museum and having so much fun.
Little Girl: But my day would be so much better if I could just paint your face!
Her Mom: Nice try. The answer's still no.

And that whole time? I'm the one cringing hoping that Little Miss isn't picking up the techniques to try to manipulate people. I'm not so concerned about her manipulating me, but ... let's just say that her grandparents are a bit more susceptible.