All’s well that ends well the clock will tell you

You know how it goes. You put the kids into the tub and you can’t get them out. Pouring water from cup to cup, bathing cars, washing shirts, submerging animals, blowing bubble foam…. Anythin is better than getting out of the tub and brushing your teeth. They aren’t afraid of catching a cold, the evening cartoon Večerníček suddenly isn’t interesting, the book can wait… You try everything, but nothing succeeds. And if you pull the plug and leave the fish on dry ground you’re a cruel person. You are no longer their friend. A stream of crocodile tears begins and the children literally stick to the floor of the tub.

Luckily there are clocks – a cooking clock, a mobile alarm, a hourglass, etc. We found out that if you agree on a certain time that the children will spend bathing, and the beeping of an alarm will signal the end, everything is much easier. The end isn’t caused by you (the mother, the meanie), but by the clock on its own account so it’s not our fault. And the agreement stands. In an ideal case, the beeping causes the following reactions. “Mom, it’s beeping!”, “I’ll take out the stopper.”, “Just a bit soaping and we can get out.”, “Mom, there are some animals that need drying.” And you’re DONE.

We gradually worked up such a system that the end of the bath was postponed by just a few additional minutes, but that’s ok. We use an alarm when the kids want to watch Baby TV instead of their normal cartoons. The never ending broadcast of children’s television has to be stopped by someone. And when the alarm rings, the TV turns itself off with the words: “Eliška is turning it off today.” Or “I’ll turn it off today.”…

In addition to the alarm clock, we also use an hourglass. Three minutes. An ideal time for taking turns on the swing, blowing bubbles from the bubble blower, jumping on the big ball, etc.

Author: Lenka Míkovcová

Translation: Marek Hubbell