After my son Takeh’s meal, the floor is stained with food spills, and various food scraps, including rice, have fallen on the floor.
Compared to the past, there are fewer spills, but there is still an unacceptable amount of food on the floor.
Therefore, after eating, one of the couple has to crawl on the floor and pick up the leftovers. It is not a time-consuming task, but it is grumpy and tedious.
I said to Take, “Hey, if you eat your food carefully, this kind of work will disappear, okay? Let’s eat slowly, bit by bit, okay?” I tell him, and he says, “Yes!” and his face gets serious. But we know from experience that words like “yes” and “I understand” are not to be trusted at all with a two-year-old. But I always ask him to be careful not to spill his food.
After he crawls around and picks up food, I vacuum for small debris. This is also part of my daily routine.
As I take the stick vacuum cleaner out of the closet, Takeh, who had been looking mysterious, suddenly becomes energetic and takes the vacuum cleaner out of my hand, asking me to let him do the cleaning himself. He then moves the vacuum cleaner back and forth, “imitating” cleaning.
As far as he is concerned, he enjoys the exhilaration of holding a vacuum cleaner with its roaring motor and the unusual sensation of moving the wand back and forth, a mysterious movement. These are the two things that make him want to pick up the vacuum cleaner, and he never thinks of “picking up the trash he dropped”.
To begin with, he is currently at the stage where he is finally learning the concept of “cleaning up after himself. It is doubtful that he even understands the concept of “cleaning up. If he were to throw garbage into a garbage can, he would understand that as an extension of cleaning up. However, I wonder if he really understands that garbage is sucked up by a mysterious device called a vacuum cleaner.
My son Takeh is 2 years and 2 months old, and at this point he still does not understand the concept of cleaning. It is a hectic morning for the parents, but he wants to use the vacuum cleaner and is quite annoying to the parents.
(2023.05.19)
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