Adam is a lot like a lot of other 3-4 year olds: he has one speed (hint: it isn’t slow). Earlier this evening we were getting close to the little one’s bed time and I was hoping to slow things down a little. That was when I decided to put a little Kauffman ingenuity to the test. We’d been having a marathon father-son goof-ball session and my super slow-motion routine was a hit. You name it and doing it in slow motion was good for a burst of laughter. I’ll admit this strategy wasn’t perfect. Producing fits of giggling doesn’t usually help get the kids in bed. It turns out pretending to be slow doesn’t necessarily lead to a slower heartbeat or anything else you’d associate with relaxation. Sure I could have tried to sit down with a book, or any of a number of tried and true strategies for getting ready for bedtime… but what fun is that? Now take a kid who knows nothing of 70’s television and show him the beauty of slow motion power run (a la Steve Austin*) – now that’s a recipe for good times.

Ah, but the problems really started when Adam’s own ingenuity kicked in. Through his own experimentation he discovered super fast-motion was even funnier.

Yeah, that didn’t really work out at all.

*I was a little disturbed to learn a google search for “steve austin” results in a whole bunch of hits for some wrestler, rather than my second favorite 70’s/early 80’s TV super-hero (my favorite of course was Mr H). What is the world coming to?