There is something so peaceful about watching your child play – observing how they lose themselves in their own imagination, as if traveling between dimensions. It has this otherworldly quality. Often they quietly talk to themselves, giving you a rare glimpse into their mystical mental universe. Sounds pretty quaint right? That is until I actually started listening to The Munch during one of these introspective moments.

Soooooooo… the other day I was serenely watching The Munch play with her dolls, and I perked up my ears to hear what she was saying.

Munch: No! You can’t do that. You have to sit right here by yourself until you are ready to stop whining. There will be no whining and no being fresh!  If you can’t behave you are going to have to go in your room and I am going to close the door!

I was like, “holy fuck Munch. You are harsh!”

The more I started paying attention to what The Munch was actually saying to her toys when she played, the more I realized that most of what she was doing was disciplining them! Her bath toys, her babies, her teddy bears… all treated like they are on the show “Scared Straight.” (In case you haven’t had the privilege of watching this quality programming, it is a show where supposedly “bad” kids get sent to jail for the day for the inmates verbally abuse them until they are “scared” into being “straight”).

I guess this is Munch’s way of processing her experience of being disciplined. She is reenacting to moments that she herself has gone through… although I actually think she is wayyyy more strict than I am.  But I am sure from her perspective she feels as if she is chastised more than I feel like I am chastising. I never thought I scolded Munch that much, but the way she plays makes me feel like I am that woman in Hansel and Gretel who puts children in ovens to eat them.

Munch: Since you are not eating your broccoli Kitty you can’t have a treat, and you can’t have any chocolate because you won’t eat anything healthy. So I am taking you out of your chair and you are going to have to go stand in the corner all by yourself.