Lest you think that my son accepted the wheelbarrow saga completely, let me tell you - he didn't. He just waited until I was in another room and then helped himself to the dish soap which he proceeded to take outside. He then covered himself and his table in dish soap and had a grand old time.
Dish soap is one of the good/bad conflicts that we have. When he was much younger his therapists used dish soap and lotions to get him over one of his sensory issues. He was allowed to play in it. When he was a little older, they would occasionally allow it at school. Later he was introduced to bubbles. Well, he knew where bubbles came from, and he loves them.
So it falls into the category of a behavior that I can't really discipline him for because for so many years so many people told him not only to do it, but they cheered him on!
And do I need to describe the results when they started teaching him life skills and how to wash a table. He discovered really quickly how to wet a washcloth and just how many bubbles he could make. Yet at school he was getting praise for wiping things down with cloths! There was a failure to communicate the whys, wheres, hows and whens.
So my washcloths are still in hiding. That may never change but we will see.
But back to dish soap. Our compromise there has been that he doesn't get into trouble if he plays with the dish soap outside. Although he is very aware that Mommy doesn't like it. And for my half, I try to make sure not to leave the dish soap anywhere that he can find. But when we've had a good long period, I forget. And I had forgotten today. So when I looked out the back door to see just what he was up to, I caught sight of the bottle of dish soap being poured out over his table.
Sigh. I stepped out the door and told him to bring it to me. Which he did, although slowly and reluctantly. Because that is our other compromise. When I catch him with it, he must immediately stop pouring it out and bring it back to me.
And as I turned to go rinse it off and put it up, I caught the sly mischief grin that graced my son's face and said it all. "Got you back, ma!"
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