Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Day 14 - More Conversations with a 7 yr old...

Sometimes conversations are pretty interesting around here. To quote Forest Gump, our conversations are like a box of chocolates; You never know what you're going to get.

Do you own a Swivel Sweeper? How about Oxy Clean, Kaboom, Orange Glo or Bowl Bright? I don’t have any one of those, and it’s making my son really annoyed. Lately, he’s been a walking infomercial. He memorizes lots of things, but this has got to be over the top. He’s allowed to have a little TV time after school before dinner, and for some reason, the commercials shown in between these children’s shows are mini-infomercials. You know the ones – the overly excited man that dramatizes everything to the max and tells you all the reasons you need a product NOW – or your life will be horrible. My son falls for it, and insists that I need to be reminded every day about these products. I don’t poke fun at him, I simply tell him about the products we use instead that do the same thing. I tell him maybe when my products run out, I might get Oxy Clean or the like. This doesn’t always satisfy him, so he goes into ‘infomercial mode’ and gets all excited to tell me about these products and what they can do to ‘help me’…

Let’s start with the Swivel Sweeper: I hear this so often from him, that I too have memorized it.

Carter: “Mommy, you need the Swivel Sweeper! It picks everything up! To crumbs, to paper clips, to hair, and fuzz and everything! Forward, backward, and side to side and even picks the crumbs up in any direction. And it doesn’t push it all around, it picks it up and rolls it right in. Let the Swivel Sweeper do the work. Call 1-800-5947. You’ll get 2 swivel sweepers, one for each room too, Mommy!”

Me: “Carter I don’t need the SS, I have a vacuum cleaner, 3 brooms and 2 different kinds of Swiffers.”

Carter: “But Mommy, I can have one for my room! It picks mulch up when it comes out of my sneakers! And you can have one for downstairs to clean up your dirties. It told me it picks EVERYTHING up! That’s what you need to get, Mommy. It’s only $19.95. Do you have that much money, Mommy?”

Oh boy...

Now, to Oxy Clean: Another one I wake in the night from talking in my sleep about.

Carter: “Mommy, you need Oxy Clean Laundry Stain Remover. Do you got extreme stains? Then you need Oxy Clean Laundry Stain Remover.”

Me: “Carter, I use Tide in our laundry, but I have Shout in case we have a tough stain.”

Carter: “But Mommy, it overpowers greasy hamburger stains, even tackles tough grass stains. Your detergent doesn’t remove all stains, and bleach may whiten your laundry, but it’s a disaster if you spill it on dark clothes.”

Me: “I’m very careful when I need to use Bleach. Hey Carter, why don’t we work on some homework so you don’t have to do it later?” (me trying to change the subject)

Carter:
“No, that’s ok Mommy. Hey Mommy, we can go to Walgreens and see if they have Oxy Clean! Maybe Mrs. Vitale (this is my friend who uses oxy clean and he SAW IT over there one day and I thought he might FAINT!) got her Oxy Clean at Walgreens?

Me: “No, probably not at Walgreens Carter.”

Carter: “There is an easy way to fight stains and brighten your laundry Mommy. Just pour Oxy Clean in the wash to remove stains, brighten colors and whiten whites. I promise you won’t miss the stains.”

Me: Trying very hard not to chuckle because of the cuteness going on around me!!

Carter: “Mommy, you should get both of those oxy cleans. There’s even a small one that I can use in case I get a grass stain on my pants, I can just spray it on! You know you can get Kaboom Bathroom cleaner too. Oxy Clean is for the laundry, and Kaboom protects everything in the bathroom when you spray it. Kaboom! and the stains are gone, Mommy. Do you have enough money to buy all of those? Do you have enough money to by three stain removers? That’s what you need to get at the store. Maybe you can get it at Walgreens. Maybe Marsh or Target Mommy! Where do they usually have it? I will go write it on your list.”

Then he starts on his hunt to find a little stain somewhere on the carpet and says “seeeee Mommy! You need this!”

I think I need to stop allowing TV time after school, or buy those products. What do you think?

Well , there’s a little peek inside a day in the life of us….

__________________________________________

Happy Birthday, Nana.

I miss you. 11/14/29-3/22/07

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Buy 'em all!

Sam said...

The cordless swivel sweeper is actually pretty good. You should try it. My friends and I have used it and would recommend it.