Look out! It's a monster!

Or it could just be the vacuum cleaner!

My youngest is afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so afraid that when I am using it she crawls around after me climbing my legs crying because she wants to get away from it. Which makes total sense! Right?

Well I know the reason she is afraid of it is my fault. It was that way with my oldest too. At some point in their life every kid is going to be afraid of the vacuum cleaner. Whether it's when they are young and the noise scares them or when they are older and actually have to use it. It's just how it goes. But my kids were ok with the vacuum in the beginning, and maybe that's how it is with every kid but I know that I scared them from it.

If you have vacuumed your house before then you can understand how stressful it is to vacuum every square inch of your house in the first place. But then to maneuver around toys that just keep appearing out of nowhere and kids that yank on the cord and try to play jump rope with it, and try to climb the vacuum cleaner only make it a thousand times worse. Plus the fact that you have to stop every five seconds to pull the cord away from the kid or relocate them away from your area just so they can come right back.

So what are you supposed to do? I mean, it should only take what, like twenty minutes max, depending on the size of your house, to vacuum it, right? Adding kids to that equation makes it an hour. I don't know about any of you but I don't have an hour of patience to vacuum my house!

So I have done what any normal parent would do in this situation. I nudge and pull. I nudge her with the vacuum, and I gently pull the cord from under or beside or over her. And of course she is an opinionated little 9 month old, so this does not make her happy. After a few times of this since she became mobile she quickly became afraid of the vacuum. She still enjoys investigating it while it is off, and yanking on the cord when I am on the other side of the house with it. She also still gets in the way but now at least she sits in one spot whining instead of being all over the place causing me to trip over her.

So in the end I may have created a slight fear, which she will get over, but I have been able to cut down my vacuuming time, which is really the important part! Especially because once I have vacuumed now there is less of my hair on the floor for her to catch in her hands!