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Why the world is frustrating

It is very frustrating to be 2. Michael and I have been teaching Luke about closing doors and turning off lights---both good habits. He really enjoys opening the refrigerator door. He knows how to turn out the light. But when I try to get him to shut the refrigerator door, he screams, "Turn out the light!" He keeps getting in the way of the door so that he can push the little button.

As far as I know, he's trying to turn off the light before we shut the door, and the fact that it keeps coming back on when we move him out of the way so we can shut the door drives him crazy. He doesn't believe us that the light goes out when the door is shut, and after all, how do we know ourselves? We've never seen it, we use logic. But this makes any attempt to shut the door a battle, unless I sneak over there without him seeing.
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Jean said…
Falling on the floor laughing! Poor Luke! Maybe you can take out the lightbulb until he is a little older? I'd forgotten how straightforward a view of the world toddlers have. :)
July 1, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Danlj said…
Might Luke be able to comprehend that the door presses on the button in closing???

In any case, this will give you a chance to watch the growth of his brain. Some day the light will go on about the door making the light go off.

:)
July 4, 2009 at 6:03 PM
mathmom said…
Joe suggested taking the bulb out of the refrigerator. If it gets to be a bigger problem, we'll do that. in the mean time, I'll explain over and over what is going on... =)
July 6, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Lenise said…
Poor Luke! Our guys can't reach the pull-chains on the ceiling-mounted light fixtures, so this is not a challenge we've run into!!
July 11, 2009 at 7:58 AM
mathmom said…
Hi Lenise! Amanda didn't know she could turn on and off lights until about a year ago---when she was 3.5 years old. Luke is highly motivated to figure out how things work, which is why I hope that this isn't a problem for long.

I hadn't thought of that as a benefit of having ceiling mounted light fixtures =)
July 18, 2009 at 9:52 PM
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