My daughter is obsessed with Dora the Explorer. I mean, freaking obsessed. She’s not so keen on other things, like brushing her teeth, eating supper, etc.

A week or two ago, I had a sudden flash of insight. It might make me a bad mom, but what if I could take her obsession and twist it to my advantage? There was a bad storm that night, right as her bedtime rolled around. My sweet girl told me she was scared of the noise, so I lied through my teeth and told her it was Dora and Boots (Dora’s monkey companion, in case any of you have miraculously escaped watching this show) playing a ball game inside their house. The noise was the ball hitting the wall.

Oh, and if she saw any flashes of light, that was just Dora’s mommy taking pictures of their game.

I felt kind of like a heel for lying to my daughter, but she got into bed and went to sleep with no tears.

Since then, I’ve tried the Dora tactic with other things. Of course any respectable kid-idolized character would, say, let her mom brush her teeth and hair after a bath, right? And I’m sure Dora eats her fruit and veggies and actually lets her mom wash her character-themed sheets (if Dora had Dora sheets, that would be weird though) without screaming and crying for a solid half hour over it…you get the idea.

It’s not that I press her to do things because “Dora does it” — she’ll get peer pressure soon enough without that!, but rather, when she does something the first time I ask her to, I tell her she’s a good helper just like Dora. It might not work out so great long-term, but right now that Dora obsession is responsible for a lot fewer battles in my day.

Gracias, Dora!

Posted by Sunshine.