Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Have you read this book to your children? If not, put on it your list! I read it to Aimee and Drew when they were wee ones - when they were the only ones - and now it is back at the top of the circle. Incidentally, that's one of the reasons I enjoy having four children spaced the way they are. The things the older ones discovered in their early years (wait - are they past those already?), the younger ones discover anew several years later, and I am privileged to be able to share more than once the same delight and wonder over familiar and beloved books and stories.
Now, this time, I am reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to all the boys, since Drew doesn't remember much of it from the first time. Aimee read it to herself as soon as I brought it home from the library, and she keeps repeating that she's exempt from this particular read-aloud for that reason - and yet, she also keeps drifting over to us and sitting in anyway. "Oh, this is a funny cure," she'll say, and end up sticking around to hear it all over again.

If you aren't at all familiar with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, she is a charming little lady with no childen of her own, but who knows everything there is to know about children. She is understanding and sympathetic to the children, and she also knows exactly how to cure their faults, so parents call her when they don't know what to do with children's shortcomings (won't take a bath or pick up toys, etc.). One of the things I find so amusing about reading this is that my children don't see themselves at all in the characteristics of the children in the book. They would NEVER be THAT selfish, or let their rooms get THAT messy, or fight and argue with each other like THAT. I imagine, then, that they would be surprised if I called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for a few cures myself.

For instance, I would like to ask Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle if she had a "Put-things-off-until-the-last-minute-and-then-still-blame-your-parents-for-the-consequences" cure. (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cures have more succinct names, of course!) We have a world-class procrastinator in our house, who consistently fails to appreciate his/her own culpability when the natural consequences result. Sometimes I think I've got this person - that there's no way I can be blamed if math has to be done instead of reading time in the evening, because I carefully explained what was expected of that person, and the hours were whiled away doing everything else instead. I imagine that person being struck with an awareness of their own responsibility in the matter - "Ah, me! If only I hadn't squandered my time, and had diligently applied myself instead. Thank you, dear mother, for firmly but kindly demonstrating the error of my ways. I shall henceforth do my work in a timely fashion and thus allow myself uninterrupted free time in the evening, made all the more pleasant by the satisfaction of hard work and accomplishment." That never happens, so I wonder if Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle would have a creative cure.

Or might she have a "Grass-Is-Greener-On-the-Other-Side" cure? "Why do THEY get to go to Disney World, and we don't?" "Why do THEY have....?" "Why do THEY get to...", or one of my favorites, "It would be so much easier to have sisters than to have these brothers." I grew up with sisters, and I can tell you that it's just a different set of troubles (and joys,too), but my daughter doesn't believe me for a minute.

It also might be interesting to see a "Complain-about-the-unfairness-of-my-relatively-small-choreload-and-very-flexible-schedule" cure. Perhaps it might be related to the one above.

There are only school-age children in the book, but if Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle did know a thing or two about preschoolers, I might ask her if she had a "Wait-'til-Mommy-starts-reading-aloud-and-then-began-talking-very-loudly-or-making-interesting-sound-effects" cure.

Besides the extra self-discipline required on the parents' part to tackle each of these things, I imagine the biggest cure for most of them is just growing up. Of course, we aults need our own set of cures, such as the "Sometimes-forgets-they're-only-children" cure. Well, I'm reminding myself now.

And we'll go on reading together and laughing at the children who aren't a thing like ourselves.