Do you know that blood curtling scream that you hear from the victim running from her killer in a horror film? Well, I just heard it and I was not plopped on my couch watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Instead, I was attempting to put sunscreen on my 3 year old. By the sound of the shrill cry that was escaping his mouth, you would for sure have thought I was slicing off his fingers or chopping off his legs. Instead, I had just pulled out my bottle of sunscreen and was gently suggesting that we put it on before going out to play in our yard.
While I know that I am not the first parent to raise a white flag on sunscreening, I do feel completely defeated. I want nothing more than to just sit inside all summer to avoid the epic meltdown Coppertone ensues. As an avid beachgoer myself, that was definitely not an option. Instead, I sought to find the magic pill that would make my summer appear more like a rom com and less like a horror film.
Not much to my surprise, the research that I found was very specific to toddlers. It also illustrated an almost identical story to the nightmare that I had experienced with my son. Many of the tips were a bit common sense, but when put into action, I found these 5 suggestions to be the most helpful:
1. Make it a game - Doing the hokey pokey and screening each body part when it is called out is not only effective, but also incredibly fun!
2. Make it a competition - See which body part takes the shortest amount of time to cover. This is also great when screening on consecutive days. Maybe one day the left leg will be the quickest and the next day the right arm will be the winner!
3. Make it a check list item - My son loves to know what is getting done and when. If he knows that filling our water bottles and applying sunscreen are two things that need to be accomplished before leaving, he is a "little" more apt to "tolerate" the screening.
4. Distract them with a snack or favorite television show - A bomb could basically go off while my son is watching Paw Patrol and he would not bat an eyelash. Slowly applying sunscreen while he is busy watching the pups save the day, has allowed me to make some headway before the screaming begins.
5. Apply with a friend who is able to handle being screened - While most experts would suggest applying before getting outside or starting your sunny day activity, it could be very beneficial to sunscreen in tandem with a buddy or pal. This way if your son or daughter sees their friend easily putting on their sunscreen, they might just follow suite!
I hope that these tips help, but if all else fails, MK's got your covered! ENTER OUR LATEST GIVEAWAY to win a Solar Buddies Child Friendly Refillable Sunscreen Applicator!! Even the SCARIEST sunscreening nightmare is no match for this tool!
