If I had a magic wand, the first thing I’d do is…
That is the prompt for Finish the Sentence Friday today. The problem is that I have trouble with these kinds of statements. It’s similar to “If you had three wishes, what would they be?” Besides asking for unlimited wishes, of course.
I’m sure I had no trouble answering when I was a kid. I wish for a million dollars, a brand new wardrobe, and a huge mansion. I’m sure I gave no thought to making wishes that helped other people – it was all about me. I’d like to think that my own children would answer more philanthropically, so I posed the sentence prompt to my twelve year old.
If he had a magic wand, the first thing he’d do is give himself the ability to dunk (a basketball).
Fair enough. He gave the first answer that came to mind; it was something he wanted that was out of his reach, literally and figuratively.
The first thought that came to my mind was to wave the wand and put away all the crap that my family leaves all over the house. That drives me nuts, and I will be a stooped old lady way before my time from constantly bending over to pick up a shoe here, a book there, a pair of probably dirty underwear over there.
That answer is pretty selfish, though, isn’t it? If I had a magic wand, the first thing I’d do is make my own, relatively cushy life, even easier. Because I’m too lazy to reach down and pick up an empty cup.
Jeez, when I put it that way I sound like a schmuck.
So then I started thinking of more global wand-waving. Would I say “bippity boppity boo” and create world peace? Eliminate hunger or illness or pain? I know we are talking about theoretical magic, but even so, could a wave of a wand really eliminate a planet’s worth of suffering? Would there be repercussions like overpopulation or the depletion of Earth’s natural resources?
I’m over-thinking this, I know. It’s just a sentence prompt. But it made me ponder the reality of the butterfly effect. Making small changes can result in bigger changes down the road, and that’s something with which I don’t want to mess.
Alright, I’ve made my decision. Instead of using a magic wand, I’m going to create my own magic. I’m going to see that shoe on the floor in the kitchen, tell its owner to stop whatever he or she is doing, and pick it up. I’m going to ignore the voice inside me that says “Pick up that pair of underwear your child left on the floor, Dana,” and wait until the culprit comes home from school and make him or her put them in the hamper.
And if the kid balks at the thought of touching dirty underwear? Here you go. You can borrow my wand to scoop ’em up hands free.
What is the first thing that you would do with a magic wand?
I like it. I try to use that kind of magic despite my kids being so young. It sorta works. My son now clears his dishes after a meal…into the recycling. We’ll work on it.
Are these prompts designed to get us to reveal our innermost character? Would wishing for money mean we are selfish and wishing for peace everywhere, all the time reveal us as unrealistic? Lose-lose. I like how you treated this prompt. I think I avoided it because it was too hard.
Good point, Jean. It is lose-lose, which is why I took the approach I did.
Your over thinking is like my over thinking. I think of a “wish” and then get scared of the “be careful what you wish for.” So I tuned out the prompt because I couldn’t think of anything. I should have asked Christopher. 😉
Ha – we think alike! I almost gave up this week too. And this is the last time I write about wishes and such. Until the next time, anyway…
I love this! I love your conclusion – we must be the change we want to see in the world (and in our kitchen!)
Thanks, Sarah!
Oh a magic wand….first things first, I’d make all children healthy! Childhood cancer sucks! It’s also childhood cancer awareness month and autism awareness month, so these are both at the front of my mind. Then I’d wave it and give us a more comfortable life. One where hubby didn’t have to work so much. After that I’d wave it so I could walk again and have two arms and hands that work instead of one side. Where can I get this magical wand?
Ahahaha! I love that ending! What is it with kids thinking they’re above touching their own dirty stuff because it’s mom’s job. My 4yo tossed a cloth napkin at me at dinner last night because she deemed it “dirty.” Whatever – little fart.
Ha – and the underwear/napkin is dirty because of THEM. So they won’t touch their own dirt, but I’m expected to? You are right – little farts.
Oh the conundrum of the 3 magical, theoretical wishes! Could I use each wish to wish for more wishes? Do that a few dozen times and you’d have enough wishes to solve all the world’s problems!
Exactly! Theoretical wishes just cause me stress. There are always rules attached to them!
I loved following your train of thoughts on this post, and I thought it was a brilliant idea to ask your son. What a cute answer!
I’m glad you could follow my train of thought – sometimes I have trouble following myself!
I love how you approached this. I tried to come up with a response for the prompt and just couldn’t. It was too much, too overwhelming. The whole what if I really had the power of a “magic wand” to change the course of life for me, my family… the world!!! I’m so glad I’m not God, really. I mean I think it would be cool to know everything but I’m pretty certain I couldn’t handle it.
I completely agree, Kate. This kind of questions are overwhelming – I can’t handle the pressure! I don’t want to be in charge of everything – just some things 🙂
haha…I am with you on this, Dana.
Mom’s chore is a never ending one!
TGIF
Thanks, Ruchira – although by the time I responded to this it is TGISaturday 🙂
Your post today had me all full of “YES”. 🙂
I’m very glad to hear that, Tracy. Positive feedback is always welcome 🙂
Ha! Our posts were very similar, but I love the way you ended yours!! With three daughters, we have quite a few wands in the toy box. Maybe I’ll get them out have tell the girls to get busy! 🙂
And you said bibbity boppity boo too! I bet you have a ton of wands – my guess is that they aren’t doing you any good 🙂
i love these first world problems that we have that we can think about what we’d do with a magic wand! i was just telling janine on her blog that i would happily clean for her because i love cleaning!!! i would do the same for you too. cleaning really relaxes me. it’s like everything else goes away and it’s all about me and grime and mess and i have control over it.
Wow – I wish I liked cleaning. I detest it, so I do it less than I should. But you are right, these are such first world problems, which is why this was hard for me to write. Anything I wrote seemed whiny!
I am LOVING this prompt today…have read the BEST takes on it! 🙂 You make me smile…wishing for your family to pick up their stuff is totally legit…I wish for it myself all the time! ;)-Ashley
It seems to plague moms everywhere, doesn’t it? All I ask is that they contain their stuff to their own rooms, but they just can’t do it.
We used to get all the stuff we didn’t put away dumped on our beds or made into a massive pile in our rooms. Wish I’d had that magic wand then.
Ha- I do that sometimes to my kids. But it’s so much work to ride them and get them to clean it up. It’s exhausting.
Oh God, I feel so selfish too now…LOLOLOLOL… But so true, if my laundry is taken care of, then something bad might happen, right? You always make me think woman.
Don’t feel selfish. Well, maybe. I haven’t read yours yet, so I’ll head over now…
I love how you’re going to create your own magic. Brilliant. Also? Picking up empty cups is totally overrated. Just saying. And haha to Kerri’s comment about the underwear in the foyer!
She’s a funny one, right? But her kids still have cute little underwear. My kids, not so much.
Oh, I hear you. On absolutely everything in this post. The sh*& around the house that drives me, sorry you, crazy. Transitioning from that to thoughts about the butterfly effect, we think so similarly. I think my post was essentially about the same. Deciding not to change the bad but take it with the good that comes with it. I loved your conclusion on making your own magic.
Thanks, Katia – although it’s hard to make your own magic sometimes, but I try. Happy New Year to you and yours!
My house would be cleaned and organized and I would learn the skills to keep it that way (organized…I do know how to clean). The whole clutter thing drives me crazy!!
I think I’d wave the magic wand for world peace but if I got a second save, I’d go for the clean house too! Except I really do love your idea of making your own magic. Maybe I’ll leave my son’s PJ’s on the floor until he gets off the bus today…and ask him to put them in the hamper himself…
I know that’s what I should do, but it’s so hard. I can leave their stuff in their own rooms and ignore it, but it’s hard to ignore the stuff that’s left in the kitchen and family room, because I have to step over it all day when they are in school. I just keep reminding myself how much I will miss them when the house is clean and they are off to college…
So funny that so many of us would have our houses cleaned! I mean, how much time do we spend doing that stuff, only to have the mess reappear in no time flat? That good feeling of accomplishment wiped out in record time. lol World peace? Personally, I think we’d be on our way toward world peace if everybody just picked up their dirty socks and underwear! 😉
I completely agree with you Linda. At the very least there would be household peace, which would be heavenly.
haha! You don’t sound like a schmuck. Even before you talked about the Butterfly Effect, I was thinking along the lines of how fixing your own needs and wants does help the world because it makes YOU more awake and capable to help others next! Right? Right. That’s what I tell myself because my magic wand would wave me all around the world without having to drive and fly. Instant hugs, photos and amazing things to see. At my fingertips.
Oh, I like that, Tamara! So even though some things are selfish, they can ultimately be positive because it would free me up to do more meaningful things than picking up my family’s stuff. I’m so going with that.
Yeah – I totally went the “make my relatively cushier life even cushier way on this answer.” But I like the idea of weaving my own magic re: getting my family to pick up after them. I’m just not sure that’s possible magic 😉
I know – it may be easier to actually find a real magic wand, right? 🙂
Weave your own magic, Dana, go for it!
I’m trying, Michelle, I’m trying 🙂
Well that is certainly not what I expected, but yes, the wand could work wonders as a dirty clothes scooper!! If I had a magic wand, I would totally use it to clean… everything. It would organize and clean my house.
That seems to be a popular answer, Alexa. Glad to know I’m not the only one who feels that way!
If you are selfish then so am I, because this is exactly how I answered the sentence. Seriously, I wish someone would clean up for me just one hour a day!! But I know what you mean as selfish as it may seem, it is what truly first came to my mind and that is what I went with!!
Maybe we could share a magic wand? I could get by with using it every other day…
Good call with the magic wand question and answer! The Butterfly Effect always makes these hypotheticals tricky, doesn’t it? And talk about being a whiny schmuck! Me, complaining about wanting extra time alone? I guess I decided it was better not to aim to high with my wand, eh? 😉
This one made me think, too. But I REALLY love that you’re going to try to bring the magic into real life. Now THAT is one helluva response to FTSF 😀
Better revenge? Take all their underwear and put it in the foyer just before their friends come over. I promise it will be the LAST time they miss the hamper!
I totally overthought this sentence too. But I like your idea of making your own magic.
Eeewww – that would involve touching underwear much more than I would want to. That would work with my daughter, but my son and his friends would probably think that was hilarious.
The first thing I would do with a magic wand is make it so that my body didn’t need sleep – I could get so much more done if I could skip sleeping!!
I hear you, Kim! I am not one of those people who can function well with only a few hours – I need my eight a night, but I rarely get it.