Momma's inner Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Daniel and Timothy adore that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  It's their mother, however, who giggles the most at Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and her clever, endearing, naughty-behavior fixes.

Take the answer-backer cure, for example.  Momma Pam found herself quite unable to get through a paragraph of that chapter without frequently erupting in uncontrollable giggling.  Her boys, amused at their mother at first, soon became quite annoyed at these delays in the storytelling.

Penelope, a parrot, is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cure for answer-backer children.  The premise is that once the child hears how horrid he sounds, he will want to be pleasant and polite again.  Penelope is very rude indeed, and repeats every answer-backer thing she's heard the children say.

Here are her favorite answer-backs:

"I'll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to."

"Say are you the boss around here?  Are you the boss around here?  Are you the boss around here?  Who's the boss, anyway?"

"Oh, yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?"

"What am I, a servant?  Work!  Work!  Work!  What am I, a servant?  Say who's the boss around here?"

"Oh, hurry, hurry, hurry.  Hurry yourself!"

Now Momma Pam's boys don't usually sass their parents, but they do their fair share of objecting and arguing.  So the morning after reading this chapter, Momma Pam decided to get in touch with her inner Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

When the boys objected to the morning directions--"Brush your teeth, make your beds, and then get dressed"--Momma Pam hopped up and down like Penelope, and squawked, "Say who's the boss around here?  Who's the boss around here?  Who's the boss around here?"

The boys giggled and giggled.  And then they happily followed the directions.  They thought their Momma was sooo cool.  Very cool, indeed.

Until the afternoon, at which time Timothy could no longer take it.

Momma Pam:  "After Cyber Chase you need to clear the construction paper, glue sticks, scissors and scraps off the table.  We need to set it for dinner."

Boys:  "But we can't!  We're not done with our creations!"

Momma Pam:  "Work!  Work!  Work!  What am I, a servant?  Who's the boss around here?"

The boys--or Timothy at least--no longer thought this new game was funny.

Timothy:  "That's really starting to annoy me!"

Momma Pam:  "Oh, you don't say.  Is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cure working, then?"

Timothy:  "Yes!  I can't take it anymore!"

Now you moms out there be sure and practice your answer-backs in front of the mirror.  And don't forget the hopping around part.  You never know when you'll need to start channeling Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.