A little story about reasoning with toddlers

A few weeks ago I was working on the computer and Elliot was over by the bookcase whining a little. His frustration level was clearly escalating, so I decided to figure out the problem and solve it so we could both have some peace and happiness in the afternoon.

When I went to investigate, I found he was trying to make a book on the shelf stand on end, and getting angrier every time it fell over. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't make it stand up. The problem was it wasn't one of those Webster's Unabridged size books, it was more like a hard bound magazine. Not an independent standing book.

I decided to make a little lesson out of this. I sat Elliot down, and pulled the book from the shelf. If he sees that I can't stand it up either, I thought, he won't be so mad. So I stood the book up on the floor, and it fell. I repeated.

Elliot frowned, and whined a little more.

Ok, I thought, he's not getting it yet.

"It's Gravity," I said, "Gravity makes things fall down." I let the book fall again, to make my point. Elliot seemed to be interested, but still confused. I pondered a better way to explain. I thought about Newton, and briefly considered dropping something on his head (Elliot's, not Newton's), but thought better of it. That could go very badly.

So I picked up the book, held it parallel to the floor, and let it fall.

"Gravity!" I said, with a little flourish.

A light came on in Elliot's eyes. He was getting it, I could tell. He'd quit whining, and was watching me with total concentration.

"See? No reason to be upset. Gravity just makes things fall." I dropped the book again, and smiled.

Elliot smiled too. He took the book and threw it, grinning even more as it hit the floor.

Lesson Intended: Some things are forces of nature, and getting frustrated with them is pointless.

Lesson Received: If you're mad at it, throw it! It'll make you feel a lot better.

Yeah. That went well.