Nosey Parenting

   I recently read a post that intrigued me...

What is the oddest thing you have done as a parent?

   Parents and children alike shared their experiences. There were some pretty funny comments as well as some that had me raising an eyebrow. I like to think of myself as a good parent. I'm involved, supportive, a little strict, and eyerollingly embarrassing - all things I believe make up good parenting. However after scrolling through the stories, I came to the conclusion I was also a really boring parent.

   Just when I was starting to worry about my classification in the parenting world, I was reminded of an incident that set me straight. Well several incidents, actually. Apparently I have a plethora of things I have done over the years that could be construed as odd. I hadn't thought of my actions as odd at the time, but in retrospect, perhaps maybe some were a little on the unusual side. At any rate, it meant I was definitely not boring. After all, I did kinda go ballistic over Kleenex.

Kleenex. 

   Sure, everyone has Kleenex in their house. A box of relief for a stuffed up nose. Relief that doesn't have to be folded and shoved in a pocket and washed at some later time after it has become crusted and hard. It's a household fixture with numerous brands available for the discerning nose. Have you ever tried taking a used hanky from a kid's pocket? Trust me, you just don't want to know!

   As handy and convenient as the magic box of kleenex is, anyone who has had kids knows how frustrating the seemingly simple tissues can be. Sniffle, pull a tissue, toss, sniffle, pull a tissue, toss, sniffle, pull a tissue, toss - repeat. Until the garbage is overflowing with hardly dampened thin paper cloths. Boxes and boxes of ever-so-slightly soiled paper filled our trash receptacles until I was finally overwhelmed. Something in me snapped.

 What does one do when you can no longer take the vast waste created by small snotty noses? 

   You have the offending child march right back to the garbage can and retrieve the ever-so-slightly used Kleenex and finish properly blowing their small wet nose!

Germs be damned! I didn't care what food was now attached to the tissue, it would not be wasted! Hey, a bit of dirt and debris builds the immune system, right?

   I guess that is not what most parents would do. In my defense, there were several children in the house at the time, creating a monumental pile of tissue waste. We could have started our own partially used kleenex factory! The other parental units in the house backed me up on this one. Maybe my method was slightly unorthodox, but like magic, our garbage was suddenly tissue free!

   

   I definitely recommend this strategy to other parents. It kills two birds with one stone. You save trees AND you give your kids something interesting to discuss with their therapist - or share on the internet with the entire world! Either way, it means you'll never have to worry about being classified as a boring parent.

After all, no one wants to be boring.

Now if I can just figure out how to get the teenage kid to turn off the lights...