I'll admit I do bring some of my training into my parenting repertoire (I don't have a lot to work with here, so I'll take what I can get). Emily is terrified of the car wash. I get it... Large spinning, spiky monsters, shaking snakes, gusts of wind and buckets of water being thrown onto the car are more than a little unnerving and overstimulating. I've convinced myself that the appropriate response to this phobia is systematic desensitization. In other words, we'll keep doing it until it's no big deal. Never mind the fact that I have to throw myself onto the console and hold her hands while she repeatedly calls out, "It's OK! You're fine! I'm right here!" My poor little parrot. It's not exactly a fun experience for either of us, but I hate to think that she'll be 25 someday and driving one of those cars with "Wash me!" carved into the dirt because she's too embarrassed to seek help for her car wash phobia. Plus, $6 is a lot cheaper than therapy.
I've even tried to make it fun by singing to her about how we're going to give the car a bath (insert 70's hit tune) "at the car wash! At the car wash, yeah!" You can thank me later for putting that awful song in your head. She's still not a big fan, but it's definitely getting better. My car has never been so clean.
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