I Love The "Flour" Girl ?

Parenting offers moments of frustration and moments of fun.  Occasionally, these two opposite experiences come together in one glorious teaching moment.  Today included one of those moments for my wife Karen.

A little background to provide some context ...
My oldest daughter Brooklyn (9, at the time of this post) is a great kid.  She is often helpful for no reason and for the past year plus she has taken on the responsibility of showering herself and her three younger sisters at least twice a week.  This has been a learning experience for everyone involved, mostly centered around the proper way to minimize the length of time and hot water being used for these shower times.  This lesson has not been learned very well, despite countless approaches including ringing alarms, timers, parental reminders from outside the shower, and even more hands on support from my wife.

Now I bring you to this afternoon, when Karen doused Brooklyn with flour (while she was showering for too long) to teach her a lesson about being quicker.

This did not come without multiple warnings over the last month.  It should not have been as unexpected as it was to my oldest daughter.  It probably should not have elicited quite as much joy for my wife.  But ... all in all, the message has been received and I expect the showers to be much, much more time-appropriate going forward.

When I got home from work today, I sang the chorus of the Song Of The Day to my daughter because I Love The Flower Girl.  The name of this tune is actually "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" and was originally recorded by The Cowsills and I enjoyed hearing it again recently when I watched Dumb and Dumber with my older boys.  Needless to say, Brooklyn was NOT a fan today when I serenaded her with this tune.  But I know it made my wife smile.

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