The birds are singing.
The sky is bright.
The sun is shining.
We’re feeling alright!”
My kids were whiners, the annoying ear piercing whining that makes your skin crawl. I know it’s biological that their whines make me cringe, mother nature wants me to give them their needs. I can totally assure you their needs are met, so they whine about silly things like the colors of their socks or when their pb&j sandwiches are cut in the wrong shape.
We tried the methods of ignoring the behavior and praising when they expressed their thoughts in a normal voice, but the whining was still out of hand. “Mom, Milo touched my leg”, “Dad, this water is too cold”………….
We stumbled onto Pete the Cat books by accident. I had heard of Pete before, but one day at Barnes and Noble our first Pete the Cat book ended up in our book pile.
That night we read about Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons. The book is about Pete’s shirt losing his buttons. Pete is disappointed but he doesn’t let this get him down.
“I guess it simply goes to show that stuff will come and stuff will go.
But do we cry?
Goodness, NO!
We keep on singing.”
We then had a talk about what makes Pete the Cat cool and how his attitude stays optimistic even when he’s disappointed. This sweet silly story shares a useful lesson on coping with the everyday disappointments. It also teaches math, but we were more intrigued by the coping mechanisms and groovy colors.
Since Pete the Cat’s Buttons Book, we have added so many of the other Pete the Cat Books to our little library. Oli dressed as Pete the Cat for Halloween and we’ve even met the authors James & Kimberly Dean. There is also a cartoon on Amazon Prime with the same cool messages. So we are basically in the Pete the Cat fan club.
The most pleasant part of our new found Pete the Cat love is the attitude change I’ve seen in both of the boys. They still whine, but it’s drastically different. And when they start whining, both Matt and myself ask them “What would Pete Do?”. WWPD bracelets would be so groovy. They have become more easy going delightful kids because of a cute cartoon cat.
Thanks Pete, James, Kimberly & Eric!
“The moral of Pete’s story is:
No matter what you step in,
keep walking along and singing your song ……
because it’s all good.”
