My son ... is most like his father.
He is kind.
He is patient.
He is easy-going.
He is not like me - all that much.
Every so often, I do run across something in the boy that he inherited from me.
No ...
He's not much into shoes.
And ...
No ...
He's not much of a clean freak.
He doesn't keep his toys orderly, nor does he care if there is a mess on the floor of his room.
He doesn't care much if his hair is combed - just right.
He doesn't care much about clean teeth.
One thing I have found that we do have in common is ...
HIDING FOOD!
Yes ...
I hide food.
I hide cookies and candy and ice cream bars ... in the very back corners of the freezer.
I hide CHOCOLATE!
I have to!
I have 4 kids in this house that WANT this food!
It's a survival tactic I learned many years ago.
It is not a tactic that I taught my children.
NOPE!
I don't want ANY of them to know how to do this.
It is a secret.
Only I ... know the GOOD hiding places.
Only I ... know just when and how and why and what ... to hide.
Only I ...
Well ...
And ...
Little Billy!
I find food he has hidden - all the time.
I find tiny bottles of Gatorades in secret drawers.
I find candy bars shoved in the back of cabinets.
I find beef jerky sticks in his room - under his pillow.
Sometimes ... when he is unable to actually hide the food he wants for himself - he will LAY CLAIM to it:
(RESERVED FOR BILLY DON'T DRINK)
On the upside ... I don't even use this tactic. I don't know where he learned it - but ... it is BRILLIANT! I hate to think that the boy is sneaky - conniving - smarter EVEN than his mother - but, HE IS! Why didn't I ever think about the LAYING CLAIM tactic?