Go Cut Your Hair

Here’s my number one tip for parents everywhere:

STOP SAYING “DON’T”!

The truth is, our innocent kids have not yet acquired the ability to hear negatives. Don’t touch that, turns into fingerprints. Don’t eat that, turns into teeth marks. Don’t fight with your sister turns into me screaming at them! When one of them tries to be grumpy, I wag my finger at them and say, don’t smile! Instant laughter. For instance, when you’re sitting down to dinner and Daddy and Mommy are having a conversation about their day and “cutting hair” casually comes up in a way that is completely over the children’s heads and totally irrelevant to them, you shouldn’t do this:

him: {turns to his 5 (almost 6) year old twin daughters, who have very long, perfect hair}

“Now you know girls, DON’T EVER CUT YOUR OWN HAIR, RIGHT?!”

me: {face palm} {blink blink blink}

But what those same 5 (almost 6) year old twin daughters ACTUALLY heard was…

“Now you know girls, THERE ARE SCISSORS ALL AROUND THE HOUSE, GO CUT YOUR HAIR, HAVE FUN!!”

 

 

Although I didn’t see them with the scissors or catch them in the act I imagine that there was an unspoken twin to twin eye conversation that happened across the dinner table and then a mad dash for the bathroom upstairs. Thankfully for them (and him for that matter), I didn’t notice the jagged ponytail and the pile of golden brown hair in the garbage can until well into the next day…and after a good nights sleep!

Oh, what’s that you say? Who cut their hair? Yeah, that’s the best part! Abby got a hold of the scissors but did she cut her OWN hair? Nope. She talked her twin sister into staying still so she could cut big chunks out of her ponytail!

Have twins, they said.

It’ll be 2 times the fun, they said.

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