Flippity-Flop

I hear the footsteps down the hall. I try to act busy and ignore the sweat beads forming on my forehead. I know it's coming and I can't make it stop. [Insert Jaws theme song here] It gets closer and closer and then it happens...

"Do you want to play trains with me?" Rowen asks.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I've been hit! I stammer out an "Um, uhh, ummm..." and scrub the counter a little harder. *Sigh* I guess it's that time again.

I love my little train conductor to pieces and playing trains once in awhile is the stuff of bonding with my cute, smiling 5-year-old. But for the 500th time, I think I'll pass on the train playing and instead consider lighting all the toy trains in the house on fire.

As I sit on that idea for awhile, I must say that it can be very hard to see Rowen struggle at home with the normal play skills that come naturally to other kids. He can only come up with playing trains on his own. I almost never catch him spontaneously blowing up a Lego building or grabbing for a coloring book. It's trains morning, noon, and night around this place.

I constantly try to throw out ideas and push other areas of play, but I am usually met with a lot of resistance.

"Rowen, you want to go outside? I'm sorry, but it's not shorts and t-shirt weather. You have to wear a coat," I say.

"Nooooooo!!! I will wait until summer," he retorts. "I want my shorts and t-shirt!"

"Rowen, you want to color?" I ask.

"Noooooo!!! I'd rather flop around on the couch aimlessly." Ok, so maybe he doesn't actually say that, but that's what he does. Flop, flop, flop.

We are trying to get him to branch out, but the resistance often makes us want to throw in the towel. I often feel like a bad mother. If I do ANYTHING, Rowen flops. If I'm not engaging him with an iron sceptor, he flops. Floppity-flop-flop. You get the idea.

I hear of other moms doing their own thing on occasion throughout the day and I look at them as if their head just blew up in a cloud of smoke. Is that really possible? You mean junior just plays by himself sometimes? This novel idea makes my head spin. You can probably even see a little smoke.

So for the 700-billionth time I search the Internet for ideas on how to do a better job here. I haven't found an anti-flopping site, but I won't give up hope. I'm sure it's out there, right?

Speaking of flopping, I better get back to Rowen. The trains gave out in the few minutes I took to write this and you can probably guess what he is doing right now at my feet. I'll give you one guess...