Push the Red Button

There comes a point in every child's life when the desire to accomplish tasks without assistance is the most important goal in the world. If you happen to have a child who is in this phase, then you will fully understand the value of the "red button."

My dear Kira just loves to do things all by herself. Her shoes, her clothes, and most of all - her movies. She wants to turn the TV and DVD player on. She wants to put the movies into the machine. She wants to push play.

That play button is where my big dilemma occurred. Every time she wanted to push play, I showed her the play button so she could push it. Every time I put my finger anywhere near that button, she would have these moments of tragedy where she was certain that I was going to push the button before she could get her hands close enough to push play. No matter how many times I showed her the button, she just couldn't remember which button makes the movies play.

Well, no more of that nonsense for me. I have the Red Button now.

Some time ago I read an article about this very issue. The mother in that article decided to put a sticker directly above the play button in order to teach her child which button to push without requiring adult assistance. Stickers do not work in my house. My two little angels would quickly embark on a quest to remove each and every sticker from wherever I might have placed it, only to reposition said sticker in some undesirable location - probably on my kitchen floor or some other spot that would render the sticker equally difficult to remove.

In a stroke of genius, I came up with the perfect solution. I would paint the play button, thus identifying the button for everybody who needs to know how to make the videos play. Having decided on my course of action, I found the brightest pink nail polish that I had laying around my house.

You notice I said "PINK" nail polish, right?

So after I found my nail polish, I went straight away to the DVD player. Of course, I can't do anything around here without an audience so I was immediately joined by my entourage and bombarded with questions about whatever I might be doing.

I very carefully opened my bottle of pink nail polish and applied a first coat of 'paint' to the play button. The first coat was left to dry for a few minutes while I explained to Miss Kira that I was painting the Play button so she would be able to push play without having to ask me which button to push. She was thrilled at this new development and, of course, asked if she could help me paint the play button. Um - NO!

After the first coat of paint dried, I applied a second coat just to be sure that the color would be dark enough to be seen by two little angels whenever they wanted to play their movies.

When the pink nail polish was completely dry, I discovered that I had a red play button. It seems that the silver color of the button combined with the pink nail polish resulted in a red button. At any rate, my goal was fully accomplished. I have not had to tell Kira which button to push in over a week now. To add to my cleverness, Marisa now goes around saying "red button" and also enjoys pushing the play button to restart a movie that has ended. I managed to remove one of the most annoying parts of my day by simply altering the appearance of the button.

As an added benefit I don't have to bend down and get really close to the machine anymore just to read the teeny tiny little letters and symbols when I'm trying to figure out which button to push. I only have to push the red button, and even though it is small, it is very easy to see now.

The funniest part was explaining to Randall that there was a perfectly good explanation for having a red button on the DVD player, and that I really had not lost my mind.