Posturing

One day last week the kids were working on one of their giant sized puzzles and to be silly Briana put one of the pieces on my head.  The puzzle piece was larger than my head and the kids thought it looked like a crown atop my head.  I told Briana jokingly that I was going to get her for putting Mommy in the puzzle and got up and chased her around with the puzzle piece on my head.  The kids tried to copy me, but their puzzle pieces kept falling off and soon they were amazed with my ability to keep mine on my head.  I told them all they needed to run with a puzzle piece on their heads was good posture.

For background, I tell the kids that when I was a teenager Grandpa Curt (my dad) became convinced that I was developing a “jock walk” because I was playing basketball.  (I’ve been doing this blog for a while now, so forgive me if you’ve heard this story.)  To counter my newfound jock walk, my parents enrolled me in many “finishing schools”, one of which was on walking.  Once a week for months I was dropped off to practice walking in flats, in heels, on gravel, on a runway, etc. and taught many different styles of walking and told in what scenario to employ each walk (like how to drop my hips and pick up my knees for runway walking versus how to pull back my shoulders and walk with my head slightly forward into an interview to best look confident and competent, etc.).  We practiced in jeans and long skirts and short skirt, using books on our heads, water cups, bells, and many other variations of tells so that the instructors knew if we were practicing at home.  We walked, sat, stood, ate, danced, crossed our legs, and pretended to climb into bed using different styles of movement hand selected “for a lady” by our instructor.  I grew up in the South – what can I say.  As a result, to this day I can even get in bed with a glass of water balanced on my flattened palm or a book on my head (as long as I can keep my head up while in bed, of course).  That’s not to say that I have great posture, but it’s in my bag of tools to pull out when needed.

So this week I’ve decided to add a new tool to the kids’ repertoire – good posture.

Posture, I tell the kids, is your body’s alignment with respect to gravity.  You want to distribute the gravity that is pulling us to the floor across your body evenly so that no one part gets extra pressure.  Bree feels the need to demonstrate the pull of gravity on our bodies for Abby.

I also explain that having good posture not only keeps your back strong (I recently had back surgery so the girls are more concerned with back strength than most.) but it also allows you to carry yourself well so that other people can see how great you are.  “And model” adds Briana.  Yes, and you need good posture to model.  I add that ballerinas and gymnasts need good posture to do their tricks because the girls are aspiring ballerinas and gymnasts.  I also explain that you need good posture whether you are sitting and standing.

  

I point out how the Disney princess dolls all kept their backs perfectly straight when they sat or stood.  Right now if the Disney princesses do it, my kids will (which is it’s own issue and is why Ariel and Jasmine in our house have “lost” their bra top swimsuits and midriff baring pants, and wear ball gowns), but today I use it. 

I show my girls how to pull themselves up from their waist and back with their shoulders, and we practice slumping and pulling up.

Then we practice holding our heads up and down and forward and backward.

Finally, I tell the kids that they can tell if their posture is good by holding things on their heads or in their hands with their palms up.  We practice, after an outfit change…

With dolls…

But I get a million excuses.  “My girl is too slippery.”  “My hair is too slippery.”  “My girl is too heavy.”  “I’m walking too fast.” 

I continue to tell the girls to concentrate on their waist, shoulder, and head positions.  To demonstrate I put a book on my head and leave it there while I play with the kids and cook dinner.  They are challenged to beat Mommy.

With cans…

  

Here we focus on not using our fingers to hold the cans.  One can in each hand was far too much for the girls although that would have been ideal, so we just use one can each.  The cans had a tiny bit of water in them to weight them a bit, but were not full by any stretch of the imagination.  I try to get them to hold their hands down at their hips.

With books…

Throughout dinner we try to eat with books on our heads.  For the most part the girls cheated by using their hands.  When I tell them to stop and that it’s ok if the books fall because they will learn…

Briana improvises…

So maybe they wouldn’t graduate from finishing school, jock walk free, but hopefully the principle of good posture is in there to straighten them up when necessary.

<3 Pedigreed Housewife