The Boy Who Stole the Mouse’s Cheese

Recently my wife and I attended an event where a man from Mexico spoke. He only spoke a few minutes but I was intrigued with his story.

When he was six years old his mother saw a little mouse in the kitchen and she jumped. He didn’t know if it was from surprise or fear but she took immediate action.

She went to the refrigerator for a small piece of cheese, found the mousetrap, put the cheese on it, activated it, put it in the middle of the kitchen floor, and told her son not to touch it. A short time later she left to run an errand but before leaving she once again warned her son to leave the trap alone. However, what he thought he heard his mother say was, “take the cheese.”

So after she left he decided to eat the cheese. He reached down to take it but before he could get it off the trap his finger got caught. It really hurt but all he could do was cry until someone came to help him take it off and then it still hurt.

As I thought about this story, I realized one reason he got himself in this situation was because his mother didn’t thoroughly explain the dangers. Instead she assumed he understood and it was sufficient. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand and as a result he got hurt.

One way of teaching and reinforcing new resiliency skills is to thoroughly explain why they are important. Changing behavior will more likely occur after a person understands the value of making a change. Taking advantage of teaching moments similar to the one described above is an excellent time to help our children learn new skills. 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.