The blessings of YOUTUBE

If you are a parent, you know that there are some things that you wish you could just skip past in the parenting process. You know, like... potty training! Alright, it might be kind of exciting, if not fun the FIRST time. But, as you know, I have FOUR kids. Things can kind of get overwhelming if you sit and think about what you have to do, which is precisely why I try to NEVER sit and think.

However, that does not stop the fact, that Annie had to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels, Charity WILL have to be potty trained, I must eventually trust my baby to crawl up and down our hardwood stairs, etc. Right now, I need to teach Annie to tie her shoes.

Yes, it is true, that they do make velcro shoes in her size. Yes, she does have a pair. In fact, she does NOT have a pair of tie shoes that fit her, BUT it is a skill that she needs to learn. Afterall, she is in school now and people will notice eventually, right?

I thought to myself, "There has got to be a better way!" Let me think... will grandma, teach her? Maybe, but that is a 100 mile drive. Can dad do it? possibly, but he is a full-time student AND a full-time employee AND is already in charge of teaching the kids to read. WAIT! I know, YOU TUBE! That is how I learned to decorate cakes. My cousins learned to hang a deer from youtube. SURELY they have a lesson on how to tie your shoe.


The first thing that looked interesting was a spongebob song about shoe tying. However, it did not go through the actual steps. I found a nice old grandma style lady who used 2 different colored shoelaces and went through the steps clearly and precisely in 1 minute and 48 seconds. Next, I got out a crayola marker and colored one end of the shoelace yellow. I sat down my 5 year old and said. "you are going to learn how to tie your shoe." Then I proceeded to press play and leave the room. I continued with various mommy tasks and returned 5-10 min later to find said 5 year old watching spongebob videos on youtube. She managed to click on the "related videos" to the spongebob show tying song and then to regular episodes. Life is so much harder now that she can read and navigate a computer!

So... we'll try again later.

The next day she comes in and tells me, "Mom! I tied a PERFECT shoe!" and shoes me her shoe with the one yellow lace. PERFECT!

Thank you youtube!