Day 71: Shoes...

Daniel, like most kids, likes routine. He is also extremely 2 and extremely boy. For the last several months he has gotten in to the routine of taking his shoes and sometimes his socks off in the car to and from school every day. The first few times it was funny now it's just annoying . I started trying to discipline him with the threat "if you take those off (insert punishment of the day here)" because I didn't want to have to fight him to put his shoes back on each time we got to our destination. Every. Single. Day. Then one day I had an epiphany, if he takes his shoes off he can walk on the cold or wet or dirty ground and deal with the discomfort and see how he likes it.  So today on our way home he, of course, took his shoes off. When we got home the driveway and side walk were wet and I thought, "this will teach him!" I got him out of the car and as he stepped on the wet pavement with his just his socks on he said "oh it's wet!" and just kept walking as if nothing was wrong. In fact when he got inside he thought it was fun that he made wet foot prints on the wood floor. Then I remembered the "he's all boy" thing and realized my plan to teach him to keep his shoes on will probably never work.

And then there are the times I want to take his shoes off and he doesn't want to...