After breakfast this morning, I sent my son back to his room to make his bed. I started cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and by the time that I was done, I was somewhat surprised that he hadn’t finished making his bed. I walked back to see what the hold up was, when I heard grunting coming form his open door.
I peeked through the open door to see what he was doing to exert himself so much. He was on all fours, holding his fitted sheet near one of the corners of the mattress. He gathered himself up and then leapt upward from the mattress and in midair tried to pull the corner of the fitted sheet over the mattress. After a few tries, he finally succeeded in getting the first corner over the mattress. He then crawled to the adjacent corner, and prepared to use the same technique.
I’m sure you can see where this is going.
When he leapt up and pulled the fitted sheet towards the second corner, the elastic on the fitted sheet snapped the first corner off of the mattress again. I was just about to make the helpful suggestion that he stand next to the bed to put the sheet into place, when he turned around to redo the first corner again. That’s when I saw the HUGE grin on his face. I decided to say nothing and watch him continue to make the bed. He kept trying and trying, and didn’t get any further in making his bed than he had on his earlier attempts. I finally, asked him if he wanted me to help him make the bed, or if he wanted to keep having fun doing it himself.
He decided that we could do it together, and we came up with a plan. Using teamwork, I held the first corner in place while he used his favored jump and pull technique. We laughed and finished the bed in no time.
Sometimes dads, the process is so much more important than the means.