A very worthy addition to the Mum’s Manual

I’ve often talked about wishing I had a manual to help me as a mum.  I heard a lovely story today that made me wonder whether us mums actually need a manual.

A colleague at work has a three-year old daughter.  The other morning said colleague was in the bathroom brushing her teeth when she heard a gasp of excitement coming from her 3-year-old daughter.  Her heart sank as her gut feeling told her that her little daughter had found the christmas presents she had hidden in a storage chest (you know the one that said daughter never goes into).

Thinking quickly she called on her daughter to come and brush her teeth.  With her toothbrush in her mouth she was trying desperately to tell her mum about the presents.  My friend listened to her daughters excited revelations but didn’t say a word.

Leaving her daughter for a minute to finish brushing her teeth, once out of sight of the wee one she flew into the bedroom and quickly flung all of the presents in the wardrobe.  Returning to the bathroom she said to her daughter, “So where are all these presents then?”  Her daughter dutifully took her mum to the chest, opened it up and without looking said Tarrrraaaaah!!!

The look on the wee one’s face when there was nothing there must have been priceless.  My friend looked at her daughter and said, “Oh I know what’s happened, it must be the Christmas Elf, showing you what you might get for Christmas if you’re a good girl”.

Lots of questions then followed but the wee one bought the explanation hook, line and sinker, even to the extent of interrupting a telephone conversation my friend was having with her husband a couple of hours later to proclaim, “Dad WE’VE got an Elf!”

So I know one little girl who WILL be surprised on Christmas morning with lots of presents because she is now on her best behaviour – just in case the elf is watching.

Of course some may think that my friends’ way of dealing with this could terrorise the child into terrible nightmares and fears about going to bed at night while there’s an Elf kicking about.  Not just any old Elf either, it’s THE Elf that will ultimately decide if she’s been good enough to get those Christmas presents it’s given her a sneaky peak of.  Well I don’t think it’s any more scary than knowing that on Christmas Eve there’s going to be a great big man with a beard and a red suit coming down your chimney and eating your food.  Ok granted the Elf hanging around is probably adding extra stress, but come on, was this a good recovery or what!

So it seems that us mums, if put on the spot, can always pull the rabbit out of the bag.  Or in this case fling the presents in the wardrobe.

Good things happen when good things happen

It’s true, positive thing blossom out of good times.  It’s kind of like a domino effect it starts small and then grows and grows.

My New Year’s resolution this year was to smile more.  That might sound like a bit of a cop out when most people were pledging to go to the gym more and get fit, lose weight etc. Not so.  Smiling was something I realised I’d kinda sort stopped doing – not because life was bad, but just because I always seemed to be too busy and my ‘to do’ list never seemed to get any smaller. I have learned that when I’m stressed I have a habit of sighing more than I smile.  So taking this in hand I decided to change it.

OK so you can’t just make yourself smile – can you? Well no, but you can be more alert to opportunities to smile that would normally pass you by.  So thats what I did and so the domino effect began.

I discovered that when I smiled, be it in the office, at home or just a smile at someone passing me in the street, people smiled back.  Do you know what – it was a nice feeling.  And so it has been this year – my year of smiling.

Come on smile - I know you want to....

It won’t be my New Year’s resolution for 2012 (don’t know what that will be but I’ll keep you posted) but it is something I’m going to strive to continue.

So it’s true, good things happen when good things happen.  Today, sitting in my little Santa’s Grotto office surrounded by all the glitter and tinsel I don’t feel the negative impact of the dark day outside.

Living in Scotland the mornings are dark and I return home in the dark.  It’s hard sometimes not to be impacted by the lack of light.  I’ve decided though that this lack of light in my day doesn’t have to mean lack of light in my life.  So I’m off to find someone to smile at.

Care to join me?  Great – meantime here’s something my sister in law sent me.  Hope it gets you started with the smiling lark……… enjoy.