Over the past few months, the 4-year old Terror Twins have taken a liking to pushing their mattress down our stairs. Well, let me back up. They first toss their pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals down the stairs and then the mattress. Trust me though. There’s logic to it.
Their purpose isn’t to make a mess. That’s just a secondary function; one that they really don’t care about. Rather, they were finding great amusement in leaping from the second or third step into the pile. Which eventually became the fourth step. Then the fifth.
It’s tough for to scold them for that when a) they’re having so much fun and b) I did the same thing when I was a kid. (Of course, we waited until our parents were gone and did our best to clean up afterwards. Which now makes me think we were clearly older than 4-years old. But I digress.)
This past Saturday I’m sitting on the couch when I hear the wife yell, “No! What are you doing? Don’t you dare do tha… stop! Ahhhh!” I jump up, go over to the bottom of the stairs to find Son #1 laughing up a storm.
“Let me guess,” I said. “He jumped from the sixth step?”
“No! He rode the mattress down the stairs! Where does he learn these things?”
Trust me when I say, not from me. Although here’s where I smiled. Laughed actually.
As she tried to calm down and finish getting ready for work, I plopped down at the bottom of the steps with my camera in hand. You see, I knew what was coming next. Soon after, both twins were back in their room working on the second mattress. It was time for round #2.
Over the course of the next half-hour or so, they worked in tandem carrying the mattress back up the steps and rode down together. Some trips looked pretty fun. Others? Not so much. One time they even knocked heads on the landing. Still – the teamwork was there and sliding continued. There was truly some good twin brother bonding going on (and I was hoping to win $10,000 on AFV).
Eventually I locked both mattresses in my room – which also had the positive benefit of our autistic son initiating communication by telling me the door’s locked and asking that it be opened. It was a great time and I’m sure they’ll be doing it again. It’s just that once I got a decent video or two, I didn’t want to ultimately be responsible for filming a broken bone or a head-print in the drywall.
So without further ado – I give you the video…
Does this make me a bad parent? I don’t think so. At least I hope not. We all talk about doing things in moderation, right?
Well. In this case, it pertains to stair-surfing.
