Lessons from the Man in the Yellow Hat

Isaac officially likes to watch shows (aka movies).  He will get the DVD case out and pull out Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.  Sometimes he even puts the DVD into the DVD player.  He has certainly come a long way, from the days he used to hide the DVD's or just pull them out just to have something to do!  So besides those two Disney movies, we have also begun to watch a lot of Curious George.  Kylee, the little girl I tend, brought over a DVD with 8 episodes of George.  Needless to say, I have watched a lot of that movie lately too.  This morning, I turned it on and came into my room to do some reading.  Being in my room isn't a horrible thing by the way, I can hear every detail of the movie, and even down to what the kids are doing, so don't think I'm a horrible mother.  Anyways, as I sat on my bed reading/listening to Curious George, I realized that the Man with the Yellow Hat is very patient.  Some of these episodes just leave me cringing as I think about how mad I would get if my child flooded my whole house because he didn't listen to my instructions, or if he spilled grape juice all over my new rug because he started jumping with a glass full of juice in his hand.  So as I thought about these things I came to the conclusion, I have much to learn from that un-named man.  He never gets very mad at George.  For example the episode where George floods the apartment, all the man says is, "call the plumber" or something along those lines.  No punishment, nothing, George even enjoys a bath after all is said and done.  I believe, what it all comes down to is this, I need to remember that most of the time my child doesn't do things because he wants to make my life harder, he does it because he wants to learn about how something works and why.  And the things to get angry about aren't those things, the things to get angry about are when my child is biting another kid, or pulling hair....not when he's letting cars roll down the hill until it hits a car, or exploring the difference in concrete and asphalt (which means he plays in the parking lot).  My hat goes off to the Man in the Yellow Hat, although you may not be real, I'm sure there are people out there like you, who are incredibly patient, no matter what.