Traumatised!

"No way, you're not doing that."

My son didn't believe my husband.

The Little Big Fella didn't jump up or protest as the Big Fella went and filled a bucket of water.

He didn't react when I asked if we needed the stuff from upstairs, or if he'd just use the one downstairs.

He placidly knelt in front of the bucket, obviously not believing we'd follow through...

And then all hell broke loose and I wonder if we've traumatised our child and permanently given him trust issues (whilst laughing our heads off).

The Little Big Fella had Book Week Parade yesterday.  All of the kids were told to dress up as their favourite book character.  I've been reading the Harry Potter books to him each night (we're up to book four - The Goblet of Fire), so I wasn't surprised when he said he wanted to be Harry.

I managed to snag a costume, which included the Griffindor robe, glasses and a wand.  Then I grabbed a can of black hairspray.

Here's the end result:

He was really happy with it and ran around saying "Avada Kedavra" all day.

Unfortunately, by the time he got home, he'd been running around sweating all day and there was black all over his face and neck.  So after he played around after school a while, we sent him to have a shower.  There were explicit instructions to clean his head and face, rubbing with a cloth and using soap/shampoo.

After a very short shower, he returned - wet and still rather black, except for a little patch at the very top of his head.  We informed our Little Big Fella that he would require another shower, to which he responded with a lot of attitude and informed us that he wasn't going to have another shower.

It was at this point the Big Fella threatened (jokingly) to run a bucket of water (he graciously offered to make it warm), dunk the Little Big Fella up and down in it and wash his hair.

"No way, you're not doing that."

My son didn't believe my husband.

And thus the joke turned into reality, the bucket was prepared and the shampoo and towel were brought to the scene.

The Little Big Fella knelt in front of the bucket on the grass and the Big Fella got him to tip his head into the bucket.

Apparently the water was warmer than the Little Big Fella liked and the joke/entertainment was transformed as we now attempted to finish the job, throwing more water over his head and rubbing shampoo all through his hair (strongly suggesting that he keeps his eyes closed).

The Little Big Fella was reacting in a much more negative way than we'd anticipated, and wouldn't put his head back in the water to rinse off.  The obvious answer to this, according to the Big Fella, was to take the entire bucket and up-end it over the Little Big Fella.

The Big Fella and I were quite enjoying all of this and laughing quite freely.

But the Little Big Fella was absolutely inconsolable, and it was at this point (amidst my mirth) that I wondered if we'd just damaged our sensitive son's psyche.

We rubbed him dry, got him to change his pyjamas, and had a chat about doing what he was told, and gave him a big hug.

I think next time we ask him to wash his hair, he might follow through a little more thoroughly the first time round!