Important Bulletin: 3 Year Olds are Extremely Literal

Some days, it feels like I will be a successful parent if I give my children the tools to become financially prosperous enough to afford the therapy they will ultimately require...

L. had been twirling 'round and around and 'round the living room to the point of becoming staggeringly dizzy. This is a source of great fun for both my older girls. I watched from the nearby rocking chair nursing Amelia and called out, 'L. did you know if you spin and spin and spin until you're very dizzy, you can lay down on the floor and the ceiling will spin?'

S. heard and immediately spun herself dizzy, lay down and watched the ceiling 'spin' around. She giggled the whole time.

L. was too impatient to spin enough to become properly dizzy, but she tried multiple times to catch the spinning ceiling.

Mr. W. called the girls in for their bath, and after L. was clean and in her pajamas, she came back to the living room and tried again. This time, she spun and spun and spun to the point of staggering around. When she lay down, though, the giggles disappeared. She looked panicked and began trying to crawl out of the living room but was still too dizzy to make much progress.

Poor baby thought the ceiling really was twirling and falling down on her. For most of the rest of the evening, she refused to walk through the center of the living room and eyed the ceiling with deep suspicion.

Mr. W. was in the girls' room with S. prodding her into pajamas, and L. took off after them. I called out, 'Don't let her spin in her room!!!!'

Mr. W. came back to the living room to ask why, and I told him what had happened just a few minutes prior. He didn't quite get it until I told him I did NOT want L. afraid to sleep in her own room for fear the ceiling was going to fall in on her.

(What sorts of careers do provide for either the mental health benefits or the high pay that many, many years' therapy will require?)