Charles is becoming psychologically crippled more often these days. On Friday he collapsed on the way to the basement because he had dropped one of his cars. It was less than a foot from his hand but he was unable to reach it. I eventually put it directly under his hand but his will was so sapped that he couldn’t summon the energy to grasp it.
However, I’ve been trying to help Charles with the car carrying. He was coming down the stairs slowly and crying the other day, because he kept dropping cars. I popped up and showed him how to put the cars in his shirt while holding the end so that he could carry all of his cars. He was so happy that he could carry all of his cars!
This lasted for a day or two before Charles was carrying so many cars that he couldn’t hold them in his shirt. So I’m looking in to a set of bags for Charles or earplugs.
Since you show little concern for permanent psychological damage, I suggest some “Real Bob” advice. When I met similar circumstances as a child, I often heard something like ‘Want me to load all of those cars in my truck and take them to the dump?’ When I wailed ‘NO!!!!’, the Real Bob said something like ‘Then you better stop crying over that or I am loading up.’ After the first time he followed through, there was little room for doubt in my mind that he was all about business.
Sometimes the iron hand inside the velvet glove is the best approach, sometimes the plain iron hand is better.
