“And she (the TyrantoCrankaTsuris) went on and on, cranking out the tsuris until all the bigger, badder dinosaurs had vanished.”

So, it is great to be so small, have everyone be bigger and badder than you, and you have all the power.  You are the most dangerous dinosaur on the planet. So much fun!!

This part of the story came from the simple game of tag with my daughter and her friends in the playground when she was young.  It wouldn’t be much fun if we just played it straight and I was just one of the kids.  Because I was obviously bigger than all the young ones, the game of tag always started out as me playing the monster, and I was going to capture them.  I would always play it where I get really really close and just miss.  Once in a while, if I got bored (and very hungry to eat small children), I would make a capture.

But, because I never really caught any of the kids, and I never really ate any of them, the game would always change.  I became a scared monster, and all the kids would chase me.  I became terrified, yelping, crying for my momma, arms waving an “oh me, oh my”.

I must have done this so often, I became a professional scaredy-cat monster.  Little kids could smell me a mile away.  Years later, I would go to Israel to visit cousins, and they had little children who didn’t speak English, and I did not speak Hebrew.  I can sit innocently with the other grown-ups, having a grown-up conversation, and these little kids all of 4 years old would come up to me and say in their Israeli kid accent “ROAR!!!!!”  The chase was on.

Last year, I was at Tanglewood for the July 4th concert with James Taylor performing.  During intermission, the same thing would happen.  A little kid with the family on the blanket next to us, looked at me, and gave me that instinctive roar.  I must have run 5 miles during intermission.  And I got offers to babysit not only from the kid’s parent, but from three other families!!  Too bad, the pay was not that good.

So, do this.  If your kid gets really a bit too cranky, stick him or her in a time out, and after they are calm and well behaved for a while, REWARD THEM!   Let them be the TyrantoCrankaTsuris, and they can chase you around while they crank out all their tsuris!!!

But, of course, you never disappear.

And even better, Mom and Dad had a bad day?  Feeling a bit cranky?  You get to take turns and switch places!!!

How much fun is that!!!!