Maxwell 19: Life is Still Boring

[SassyPants]

4 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

I think they’re something to do with the Fort Smith conference, they’re in this photo here:

And so all those adults take the couches, while the people with the baby get to sit on the floor?

How about Jesse or Steve displaying some manners by letting that lady and her baby sit on the couch-

[Ivycoveredtower]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

And so all those adults take the couches, while the people with the baby get to sit on the floor?

How about Jesse or Steve displaying some manners by letting that lady and her baby sit on the couch-

I mean there seems to be an empty chair. maybe the lady just likes sitting on the floor. or only sat there for a second for the picture. 

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

I mean there seems to be an empty chair. maybe the lady just likes sitting on the floor. or only sat there for a second for the picture. 

In the interest in keeping families and couples together (their world, not mine), Jesse should be on the floor next his father and Mary in the chair next to them, leaving the couch for the last couple/family.  Perhaps he asked and they declined.

Mom looks pretty entrenched with her book open and her belongings behind her.

 

[HermioneSparrow]

2 hours ago, SassyPants said:

And so all those adults take the couches, while the people with the baby get to sit on the floor?

How about Jesse or Steve displaying some manners by letting that lady and her baby sit on the couch-

That would require Steve to be a gentleman but Steveovah and his sons are way too holy to give their seats to a woman... The horror! You know women are second class citizens to that d-bag and I bet he taught his sons about how superior they are.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

Or, you know, maybe it was just easier to be on the floor with the baby. Except eww. 

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Or, you know, maybe it was just easier to be on the floor with the baby. Except eww. 

My first thought was the baby was doing tummy time or was really wriggly and wanted to be out. I have so many photos of me sitting on the floor for those reasons!

[Candydandy]

Why is the thread  title still boring? Cant you see the excitement? We got going on here puppet playtime and burrito making. Add in the child caring for the new mommies and its just too much. 

[LilMissMetaphor]

I'll summarize Sarah's latest "practical idea post"; it's to give your little kids toys to keep them busy while you deal with your older ones.

Mind.  Blown.

[AllisonWndrland]

Oh, Maxwells. Today's post is GOLD. I would never have thought to give toys to children. NEVER. I mean, what? Who thinks about toys when it comes to keeping children occupied? 

 

[catlady]

Next thing you know, they’ll be giving the kids crayons and paper! Don’t the Maxwells know toys are a gateway activity to F*N?!!!  

I will pretend not to notice that the boys have legos while the girls have the sewing-derived toy. While I do agree it’s quite clever, I hope the boys have been encouraged to string blocks onto yarn and that the girls are given the chance to use the legos. 

[danvillebelle]

Putting aside the mind-numbingly NORMAL suggestion to give TOYS to small children (I can't stop giggling...)

I am pleased to see that Nate&Mel and Chris&Anna invest in quality toys for their kids.  HABA and Playmobil rock.  

(Some of the Playmobil sets are probably hand me downs from when the younger Maxwell kids were little, because I remember them being talked about in their books - but still.  I have the Playmobil 1-2-3 train set that my kids played with as toddlers and my grandkids will play with it someday, it still looks brand new).

[IReallyAmHopewell]

I'm shocked! They have actual TOYS??? Not little tools like brooms so they can pretend/work?

Here is more awesome prose from a Maxwell "When I was over taking pictures for this post, I agree. It’s pretty neat."

I realize she may just have typed fast and not checked it (I'm guilty of that all the time), but if not.....

[usmcmom]

Why not write a post on DIY entertainment for kids? Like a cookie sheet for magnetic letters. That makes a great activity the child can do on his or her lap. How about a muffin tin for sorting things like pom-pons, large buttons, colored paper shapes? 

My kids' favorite activity? The macaroni bucket. I filled a large rubber container (like a shallow Rubbermaid tote) with dry macaroni. It took about ten boxes from Aldi to fill it but it lasted forever. I stored measuring cups, big spoons, dump trucks in the tote. When I needed to keep the kids occupied, I'd pull that thing out, take off the lid and let them go crazy. They LOVED that thing - all the scooping and dumping and "tink tink tink" of the dry pasta hitting the cups.  It was also a good way to start teaching measurments. Just play with it on non-carpeted floors so you can easily clean up the macaroni and put it back in the tote. 

If only I'd known to hand them plain ol' toys. 

[Hane]

@usmcmom, my youngest nephew’s favorite outdoor toys were the banana-sized pinecones that fell off the trees in his back yard. He’d load them into the “trunk” of his Little Tykes car and imagine that they were all kinds of things m.

[ophelia]

I was surprised that the Maxwell grandkids play with regular (and high quality) toys. These little female lego figures even wear PANTS! I'm in schock.

[socalrules]

Sarah really think this is brilliant advice? Are people really blown away by the idea of giving a kid toys to keep them busy? Does she realize some kids can occupy themselves for hours with toys they just decided to play with or sometimes by using their imagination? It makes me wonder how the little Maxwells spend their time. I get that they love schedules but how to they schedule little kids? How do you fill the time of a little kid if they aren’t in school? When I was a kid, if I was just staying home all day, I would pretty much decide what I was going to play with, when I was going to play with it or color or ready a book. So many options because I was just hanging around the house. I guess it never occurred to Sarah that lots of kids play normally without everything being scheduled to the minute. 

[PennySycamore]

@usmcmom,  I may borrow that macaroni  bucket idea to use with my grandchildren.  It's brilliant!

[usmcmom]

45 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@usmcmom,  I may borrow that macaroni  bucket idea to use with my grandchildren.  It's brilliant!

Do it!! They will love it. I loved it too, actually; and usually found myself on the floor sccoping macaroni with my kids. 

[Odd1Out]

Do you think some of their followers are so into the Maxwells they want to do everything just like them and can’t think for themselves? Like they wouldn’t normally give their younger kids toys while mom needs to help the older kids because the Maxwells never mentioned that should be included in the homeschool day. But now that the Maxwells say it’s ok, the other parents are running to the store or getting online because they’ve been given ‘permission ‘ to do so. 

[daisyjane1234]

11 hours ago, socalrules said:

Sarah really think this is brilliant advice? Are people really blown away by the idea of giving a kid toys to keep them busy? Does she realize some kids can occupy themselves for hours with toys they just decided to play with or sometimes by using their imagination? It makes me wonder how the little Maxwells spend their time. I get that they love schedules but how to they schedule little kids? How do you fill the time of a little kid if they aren’t in school? When I was a kid, if I was just staying home all day, I would pretty much decide what I was going to play with, when I was going to play with it or color or ready a book. So many options because I was just hanging around the house. I guess it never occurred to Sarah that lots of kids play normally without everything being scheduled to the minute. 

This.  There is all sorts of research that suggests that kids benefit from unstructured time where they are forced to be creative and imaginative in order to occupy themselves.

 

Oh wait.  This is the Maxwells.

[johnhugh]

18 minutes ago, Odd1Out said:

Do you think some of their followers are so into the Maxwells they want to do everything just like them and can’t think for themselves? 

Oh yes the Munks were pretty ‘normal’ utill they went to a conference, then suddenly women in pants, normal swimming attire, the BEAST, shorts were all forbidden and Stevie even tried to buy their daughter Liz for Joe. Luckily they saw the light.....

[Marian the Librarian]

Oh, how blessed we are! The Maxwells have deigned to share their brilliantly innovative, God-given, superspecialsecret tricks for keeping small children occupied and engaged. Toys! And books!! Mercy me, who'd a thunk it?

Someone needs to remind Stevie that hugely overinflated egos make the baby Jesus cry...

[nastyhobbitses]

On 3/7/2018 at 3:47 PM, LilMissMetaphor said:

I'll summarize Sarah's latest "practical idea post"; it's to give your little kids toys to keep them busy while you deal with your older ones.

Mind.  Blown.

I'm just thinking of a particular read Willam did on a style vlogger who claims that a great way to "experiment with layering" in cold weather is to button a shirt rather than tie it at the waist: "OH, so if you're cold you button your shirt? Holy shit, you're gonna win a Peabody Award for reporting, fuck Bosnia!"

I am so tempted to write a "Maxwell Tips" parody blog where I write long, flowery blog posts about great ways to do really obvious things. Practical Ideas to Avoid Touching Things That Are Hot! 

[freethemall]

On 3/7/2018 at 3:29 AM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Or, you know, maybe it was just easier to be on the floor with the baby. Except eww. 

As someone with a baby, sometimes it's easier to be on the floor if they're crawling around and wiggling and so they have more space to move around. So the parents could have preferred the floor and as long as its clean enough, who cares?

[FloraKitty35]

13 hours ago, ophelia said:

These little female lego figures even wear PANTS! I'm in schock.

Up next, Sarah will write a post about Nathan having a question regarding where to find more conservatively dressed female lego figurines.