“He lost a Trashie and he’s been crying.”
Trashies are small, colorful, rubbery, gross figures with names such as Putrid Pizza, Spew-Ghetti, and Trashantula. As you can imagine, the target for these toys are boys about my son’s age. The phoro below from six months ago shows Kai holding a few of them.
There must be well over a hundred different Trashies now, and Kai is attempting to collect them all. We use them as motivators – he can earn one for every two times he does one of the exercise programs we’ve set up for him – and he now has dozens of them.
The other day, he had just earned a new one. Apparently, he was playing with it in the kitchen when he dropped it, and it disappeared.
Now these figures are small – they are about an inch tall – but they are not so small that we would lose them in our kitchen. My wife said she looked all over but could not find it. When I got home, I started looking immediately while my wife prepared dinner.
I checked all around – our kitchen is not that big so it did not take long – and, sure enough, the Trashie was nowhere to be found.
Kai came down to the kitchen. He had been in the bathroom, supposedly taking his bath, but we found out that he had yet to go in the tub and was still crying.
“Did you find it?”
No, I can’t find it.
I asked him to describe it.
“YOU HAVE TO FIND IT!”
Yes, yes, I will keep looking for it. But, can you tell me what it looks like? What color is it?
He continued to be very upset. He was yelling and crying constantly.
We tried to redirect him. “Can you draw a picture of it?”
But when Kai is upset like this, it is hard to redirect him or to get him to calm down. If anything, he got more angry.
“MOM, YOU MADE A BIG MISTAKE!”
I explained that it wasn’t Mom’s fault. She didn’t drop it, and she was helping to look for it. In fact, she had already given him a different Trashie before I got home to replace the one he had dropped.
After awhile, dinner was ready and I was hungry. “Let’s eat dinner and we’ll look for it again afterward.”
“I AM NEVER GOING TO EAT DINNER AGAIN!”
I told Kai that if he got this upset about losing a Trashie, maybe he should not collect them anymore.
My wife and I started to eat dinner. My son was still upset. But about the time that we were finished eating, he finally started to eat his dinner.
I put my plates away and looked for the lost Trashie once more. I checked outside the kitchen, looking down the stairs in the off chance that it bounced further than we thought was possible.
But we could not find it.
I deduced that the only place it could possibly be was under the built-in bench in our kitchen. There is a small opening just off the floor where a small rubbery figure could potentially bounce. You could not get it in there if you tried, but this little guy must have beat the odds and found it’s way in there.
The problem is, if that is indeed where it is, there is no getting it out. The opening is too small to stick a hand into.
Of course, when Kai found that out, he wanted to rip the bench apart. Well, we weren’t doing that.
You would think that at some point, he would get over his disappointment and anger. After all, he still had dozens of other Trashies, and would continue to earn more. What difference does one little rubber character make in the big scheme of things?
But then, that’s not really being empathetic of our son. For him, this was the most important thing in the world, at least at that moment.
We tried to be patient and understanding, but when Kai continued to yell my wife had had enough. She shouted at Kai to stop. There was nothing we could do to find the lost Trashie. He had to get over it. She did not want to hear another word. She took away the basket that held the rest of his Trash Pack collection.
I thought that might have been a bit harsh.
But, Kai finally quieted and calmed down.
He made a comment about the Trashie-eating bench, but it was said somewhat jokingly rather than in complete anger.
And while his disappointment remained, the crisis was over.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t lose another one any time soon.
I thought for sure you were going to say it was stuck in his clothes and he found it when he undressed for his bath!
ReplyDeleteHa, you know we asked him if it might have fallen onto his clothes and he angrily said it did not. But we never really inspected him. We'll have to look around the bathroom, and maybe in the laundry room and washer and dryer just to make sure it wasn't there.
DeleteI very well know the frustration at having lost something in the same manner. It drives me to distraction for days unless I find it. My problem is that once something is in my hands, and I get distracted, they go on automatic. They will put something down elsewhere, without me realizing it, and then I walk away and only when I am at a different location, do I remember about the object I had had in my hand...only to discover it was gone. I would look in that location thinking I had dropped it there...and only by looking where "it couldn't have been" did I find it. I have thrown away change (in bills) in the trash, because I got distracted after holding the money, and as I walked, my hands had registered "paper"...and I then automatically threw away the "trash" I was holding.
ReplyDeleteThis may have not happened to Kai. If he distinctly remembers dropping it...then it may have bounced high or far. It could be turned into a complete fun search of the surrounding areas outside of the kitchen. It could be an exercise in logic. If the initial premise is correct (he had dropped it)...and if it was not in the areas searched...it must be where it had not been looked for. All possibilities should then be considered. Don't forget the garbage disposal in the sink! Good hunting :)
The search was challenging as neither my wife nor I saw what actually happened, and we had to rely on Kai to convey information, which he doesn't always do too well, particularly when he is so upset. I tried to make the search fun, but he was already too upset at that point. I tried to break my own assumptions of where it went, as it may have gone in a completely different direction, but so far it is still a mystery! :)
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