Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

-
I sometimes wish that I could take sheets of newspaper and cover floor length mirrors. This is not due to any vanity on my part nor hesitancy to see exactly what I look like from the back when I am cleaning the toilet, nor frustration from when I am looking my most charming while doing aerobics, although that has been the case in the past. No, my motive for covering mirrors would be utterly different.

I have discovered that children who have mirrors as closet doors spend a good deal of time looking into them. This is not a problem when the child is happy or when they are watching how they look when they dance, but it is a giant problem when the child is upset.

If I could read their mind, I'm sure it would go something like this:

Waaaah! Waaaaaah! I don't remember why I am crying but I look perfectly miserable in the mirror, so I must be. Waaaah! Waaaaah! No, I can't close my eyes to go to sleep, because then I couldn't see how miserable I am supposed to be.

or

I'm mad. Don't I look charming when I am mad? It is a good thing that I am mad at my babysitter because I think I look cool when I am mad.

I'm just glad I don't have to babysit in a house of mirrors.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Have you tried recording the cries? I've heard (from a reliable source) that playing back recorded cries soothes a baby. Apparently visual feedback does not work the same way...
8:14 AM
slowlane said…
I think it only works on infants (not that I've actually tried it.
10:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "No I" Phone

-
Image
It's a cheap party trick: I pull out my phone, flip it open to check the time or send a quick text, and watch for the reactions. In the decades I've owned a flip phone, people have given me a few double takes. Recently, though, when I opened my phone to squint at a photo texted to me, the person sitting across the conference table surprised me with a "Haha! I love your phone!" And I did, too. I loved my flip phone. Then, in a deadly mistake of distracted domesticity, I scooped it up with my bed sheets and dropped it in the washing machine: Eco Cold, extra spin. Oh gentle readers, the tragedy of beautiful T9 predictive text programming drowned at the bottom of the linens spin cycle! Yes, I lost saved phone numbers, the blurry store photos I'd snapped over the years to double check prices when back to internet access, the text threads with details about addresses and meet-ups... all lost. Sad, inconvenient, annoying, frustrating, all of it. But the biggest tragedy, ...
Read more

Amtrak Adventuring

-
Image
Trying to see it all, 2011 I may never look down the aisle of an Amtrak train without remembering a baby bouncing, holding fast to the seat as the train rocked and bounced even faster. All the world over, trains carry a reputation for efficiency and frugality. That has never been my experience with Amtrak.  The Adventure Begins, June 22, 2011 Thirteen years ago (almost to the day) our little family set out on our first Amtrak adventure. We thought three weeks touring the United States on a train with an infant made so much more sense than the alternative. The alternative being flying or driving (with the same infant) to a wedding in the middle of Cornfieldville, Ohio. Being young and foolish, it made perfect sense. Our baby did not yet sleep through the night, so sitting up in coach seating night after night wouldn't affect our sleep all that much. With a rolling ice chest filled with lunch sacks that prevented us from knowing in advance whether our meal was Option A, B, or C, w...
Read more

The Crazy Market

-
There is a place here in Beijing that I (not so) affectionately call The Crazy Market. Imagine four floors of wall to wall shops, one shop selling the same thing that 15 other shops are selling, all displayed with bright colors and lights and each shop having two or three people who call out "Hello! What are you looking for?" "Hello! We give you good price!" "Hello! How many coats you want buy?" "Hello! We have your size shoe!" (This one makes me want to stop and say "Oh, I greatly doubt it.") "Hello! Nice pearls for you!" If you so much as look at an item, it is immediately assumed that you will buy it and so they call out "What is your highest price? We give you good discount." The only exception to this is the very bottom floor that is filled with every imaginable and unimagineable sea creature and various sea creature parts in various stages of life. This serves as a good aroma which frequently makes its way up t...
Read more