Boy Who Stole the Mouse’s Cheese

Some time ago, my wife and I attended an event where a man from Mexico was invited to speak. He only spoke for a few minutes, and I don’t remember the topic he was assigned but I do remember being intrigued by a story he told about an experience he had as a six-year-old boy.

He explained that one day he was at home with his mom when she saw a little mouse run across the kitchen floor. His mom screamed and jumped seeing this cute little mouse. He didn't know if her scream was from fear or surprise, nevertheless she took immediate action. She went to the refrigerator and took out some cheese and cut off a small piece. She looked for the mousetrap and when she found it, put the cheese on it, activated it, set it in the middle of the kitchen floor, and turned to her son and said, “don’t touch it!”

A short time later she had to run an errand and the trap was still in the middle of the floor but she felt before she left she should once again warn her son to leave the trap alone. However, what he thought he heard his mother say was, “help yourself to the cheese!”

Almost as soon as she went out the door he decided to go eat the cheese. He walked into the kitchen and carefully bent down to grab it from the trap so he could put it into his salivating mouth but then the unexpected happened. The trap snapped shut before he could get the cheese out and his fingers were caught. It hurt really bad and he didn't know what to do so he did the most logical thing and he cried loudly until someone heard him and came running to help him take it off. Even after the trap was off it still hurt. It was a pain that he never forgot.

As I thought about this man’s experience, I realized that the biggest reason he ended up in this situation was because his mother, who loved him very much and would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, didn't thoroughly explain the dangers. Instead she made the assumption that he understood her warning and knew about the dangers of the mousetrap. She didn't believe that anything more needed to be said. Unfortunately, her son clearly didn’t understand her instructions and as a result he got hurt.

I'm sure that if this mother could do a do over with her instructions, she would gladly have taken it and explained more clearly why he should not touch the trap. This experience taught this mom that when communicating a new concept with her son, she needed to reinforce what she was trying to teach and thoroughly explain why he shouldn’t touch the mousetrap.

Changing behavior will more likely occur after a person understands the value of the change. Taking advantage of teaching moments similar to the one just described is an excellent time to help our children learn new skills and avoid pain. It is all about effective communication.

What do mice and little children have in common? Cheese? The thing is, we need to help our children recognize when it is appropriate to eat it.

Happy Failing Forward,