Cardboard Box

I never knew all the things you could do with a cardboard box.  My children, as usual, have enlightened me.

We, the boring, think that an empty kleenex box should go into the recycling bin.  Unless of course you are making an old-school gingerbread house at Christmastime.  You know, instead of buying the handy dandy kit.

Children don't think this way.

Babies look at them, bat at them, and often chew on them.  They play with them for hours making all parents wonder why on earth they spent money on toys.

Young boys destroy them.  This is how they think:  "A cardboard box?!  What a perfect thing to drop-kick!"  Actually, I am giving them too much credit.  Young boys don't really think those words, they act on total impulse which goes from an instant flash of "cardboard box!" to a look of glee and a swift and powerful swing of the leg.  All boys watching are instantly sucked into this sea of flowing testosterone and want nothing more than to release the power they feel twitching in their own leg, longing to set this cardboard box sailing through the living room again.  Larger cardboard boxes make nice backdrops for shooting with your bow and arrow.  Box lids make nice pallets for setting off small fireworks in the backyard.  Huge boxes, of course, are meant for hiding.

Young girls collect them.  Wanna know how many cardboard boxes are in my daughter's room?  Twelve.  many of which are empty shoe boxes of varying sizes.  Storage for her markers.  And little dolls.  And her little dolls pets.  And all the junk that doesn't have a category.   They are bedrooms for barbies.  Or flipped upside down and made into a lovely dinner table covered in paper food.  And a few crammed under the bed, "just in case."

If you're a parent, I think you know exactly what I mean.