Focus

It's a proud moment when you realize that occasionally your children listen to what you say. Who cares if the derived meaning might be 180 degrees from that which you had originally intended. What matters is that you've made a breakthrough.

A few months back, MBA Dad .employed numerous Pavlovian cues to convince one Savanna Hope Blau of the virtues of using the restroom like a big girl, and shedding her baby safeguards along the way.

We reviewed the positive impact on the environment and even the psychological virtues of Dora the Explorer panties vs Pampers, however, ironically, what eventually stuck was the catch cry of "Let's focus on the potty".

From that moment on, she could not wait to tell good ole dad about today's achievements "focusing on the potty". Amidst her delight in advising on her progress "focusing", she boldly stepped forward into big girl status and shed the stigma of frumpy pants. This marked one small diaper for daughter, but one massive relief for Blau-kind in Singapore.
And parenting books be damned, I had cracked the code with a bit of BSchool 101 vocab. At the end of the day, it was all about FOCUS wasn't it? Who could imagine the power of FOCUS when applied to future challenges??! Like some wide-eyed fresh recruit she had seized upon the power of Focus like a pig to...well, poo. How had no one ever told me about this magic word??!! Had we cracked the code? Was this the key to stifling the whines, blasting through bathtime??

Much to our chagrin, we quickly discovered that the "FOCUS technique" was not so easily transferable.
"Savanna, I need you to focus on eating your oatmeal"
"Focus on the potty?"
"No...focus on eating all of your oatmeal."
" I focused on the potty like a big girl, right daddy?!"
... ... ...
"Yes, dear. You did a great job focusing on the potty."

Moral of the story is that you can only Focus so much on your kids before insanity overtakes you.