Hilarity

I have a monthly subscription to Parents magazine. I've gotten some great information and advice from it. I recommend it to any parent. This last month's issue had different ways of saying "no" to your children without saying the word "no." So, later that night I tried some of the techniques and liked the results. So, I decided trying out another part of that article could be just as beneficial. Instead of telling the kids to go upstairs for a timeout insisting they behave, the suggestion was to tell them they should go upstairs and find a happy face before returning. Anyway, both Joey and Clarissa were being pretty rotten earlier this week. I told both of them that they both needed to find their happy faces for me. Clarissa promptly turns to me, smiles, and asks if that was a good happy face. I thought to myself that this was a great idea. It distracted her and she was giddy over the fact she gave me a good happy face. Joey stormed off and headed upstairs. He returned moments later, still had a grumpy face, but held something in his hand. He found a deck of cards of mine. These particular cards have smiley faces. I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, come on . . . I asked for him to find me a happy face. He definitely found one.