The Farm

I was reading my favorite blog the other day and I found myself laughing so hard at what I was reading that little chunks of the carrot I was eating came flying out of my mouth. Tears started to stream out of my eyes, and I had to wipe my eyes in order to keep reading the post. The post was about a mom who was trying to take a shower, and how her frustrations with her children during the shower led her to threaten to take her youngest to "The Farm." The Farm is a work camp for naughty children, where they work all day and only get cold mush to eat. As I read Lindsay's post I regretted that I had not thought of a similar threat for my children. But Lindsay assured me that it was not too late to introduce The Farm into my parenting bag of tricks. She suggested I make a flyer about The Farm and leave it around for my seven year old, a new reader, to find.

I started to make a flyer about The Farm, but I couldn't find any clip art that showed cute children engaged in grueling, back breading labor. So I decided to introduce The Farm this morning, verbally, around the breakfast table. Here is how it went:

Me: Have you guys ever heard of The Farm?

Jacob and Casey shake their heads.

Me: The Farm is a place where kids work all the time, like washing windows and scrubbing floors.

Casey: Ooohhh, I love to clean! Can we go there?

Me. The problem is, the kids don’t get to leave the farm.

Jacob: Oh.

Casey: Are their parent’s there?

Me: No, it’s kids only.

Jacob: Who invented The Farm?

Me: I think The Farm was invented by a frustrated mom, who had naughty children.

Jacob: Oh.

Me: Also, all they have to eat is cold mush.

Jacob: After all of that work that they do? That doesn't seem fair!

Casey: I’m going to bring them some sweet yogurt, so they don’t have to taste the mush.

Jacob: Mom, please don’t ever send us to The Farm.

I think the seed has been planted. Don't you?