More Yogurt

Apparently this week’s adventures were sponsored by Yoplait.  (Note:  I have received no compensation for this endorsement, but I will accept any if offered.)  Remember my last reflection on yogurt involved me pondering how self-sufficient my children are?  Apparently that thought stuck with me…

After lunch the other day, I was in the kitchen cleaning up when I heard Benjamin (age 4) starting to cry in the dining room.  (Not the “I’m really sad” or “I’m hurt” cry…the “I’m upset about something” cry.)  I glanced into the dining room and saw Ben standing next to the table, holding onto the plate and cup that he was clearing.  I couldn’t determine the problem, so I said, “Ben, what’s wrong?”  He immediately cried, “I dropped my yogurt cup and it spilled on the floor!”  

I looked down by his feet and, sure enough, there was his yogurt cup lying on the floor.  He had eaten only a few spoonfuls of it at lunch, and there was now yogurt pooled at his feet, sprayed across the floor, and splattered on the baseboards on the wall.  I sighed internally.  I am not one to get mad over spilled milk, but I can get frustrated when my lunch cleanup suddenly doubles in magnitude.  This is when I had a sudden and rare moment of mothering clarity.  I put on a smile and said cheerfully, “No problem, Ben!  I’ll tell you how to clean it up.”  

I braced myself for the “I don’t want to!” fit, but was pleasantly surprised when he stopped crying and said, “I know how to clean it up, Mommy!”  

“Great!” I said, followed by “Start by picking up your yogurt cup and bringing it over to the counter.”  (I couldn’t stop myself from giving some direction.)

Then I turned back to the dishes.  A minute later, a yogurt cup appeared by my side.  I handed Ben some paper towels, and then watched as he went over to the side of the dining room table opposite the spill.  “Ben…what are you doing over there?”  

“I dropped it again over here, Mommy!”  Right.

But after that, he got right to cleaning up!  I stayed busy with the dishes in the kitchen (sometimes it’s just better not to watch), and Ben mopped up all of the yogurt with paper towels.  

“It’s sticky, Ben.  You’ll probably need to use some wet paper towels to finish wiping it up.”

Back he came and wet a paper towel himself.  I looked over again, and he was trying to clean up massive areas of stickiness with only a single, slightly-damp paper towel.  I suggested a little more water might help, so he came and wet more paper towels.  The next time I looked back, he had done such a good job around the dining room table that it seemed to have sprung a moat.  He was now working on the floor in front of the kitchen.  “What are you doing there, Ben?”  

“I spilled here, too!”  Of course.  “The floor’s all wet!”

“No problem, Ben.  I’ll get you a towel to dry it with.”

I got him a rag towel from the laundry room, and he quickly recovered the dining room floor from beneath the water.  (Mostly, anyway.)

The end result of this whole adventure?  Benjamin was so proud of what he had accomplished.  We were both relaxed and happy.  My lunch dishes got done at the same time that the yogurt cleanup did.  I got out of cleaning up a gigantic mess AND I get to be a good parent for teaching my child how to clean up his own messes.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Sure, the dining room floor did need a follow-up mopping, but not right away.  (My feet only stuck to it in a few places.)  This is the good life…