Boundaries

Why is it that, for a two year old, the one place you don't want them to go is the one place they want to be more then anything else in the world?

Here is a recurring example in our house: We have sitting in our living room, posing convincingly as a coffee table, Aiden's toy chest. Aiden has been told in every way that it is possible to tell a toddler that:

"No, in fact, that toy chest is not for sitting on/ laying in/ climbing into, it is simply a place in which toys are to be stored..."

Of course, it is no sooner that those words leave our mouths and reach certain tiny ears that the toy chest becomes the only place to sit in/ lay on, etc. It is the ultimate place of rest, better then the softest lazy-boy (and certainly better then the large, empty couch sitting mere feet away.)

Is it practical? No. Comfortable? I can't imagine that it is. Ergonomically sound? Certainly not. And yet there we continue to find him, reclining amongst the Hot Wheels and building blocks, pretending for all the world like the toy chest is very own sleep number bed.

I know that this "problem" is not so much of a real problem as a way of life. And I also know that parents with older kids are chuckling quietly to themselves thinking, "they 'aint seen nothing yet."

True, true I am sure, oh wise parents. Sitting on toy chests is small potatoes when compared to cars, curfews and other perils of teenage parentdom. And yet we will continue on, I suppose, making boundaries and having them tested.. and sometimes even broken.