It’s about leprechauns, calm down.
Last night, I had a mini-crisis here in my household.
My son and daughter, who go to two completely different schools, both came home excitedly telling me that tonight is the night for catching a leprechaun!
Um … excuse me?
So, I said to them, “Um … excuse me?”
They explained that they learned in school that on St. Patricks Day eve (who has ever heard of that?!) people set up a trap to catch the sneaky leprechauns that try to sneak into our homes and steal our pots of gold.
?????????
I have literally never heard of this before. Like, this was definitely not a thing we did when I was growing up. And somehow, my children were as excited about this as they are on Christmas Eve and Easter. When in God’s name did we elevate the leprechaun to Santa and Easter Bunny status?!
But who am I to judge, right? And far be it from me to make my kids miss out on something that really excites them, even if I have no freaking idea what they’re talking about …
So, off I went to Google.
I had a small problem, because it turns out that you’re supposed to have some sort of pretend leprechaun for the children to find in their trap the next morning? I had no trap, no leprechaun, I was a little wine-tipsy, and the stores were closed anyway.
Back to Google. ”Leprechaun trap ideas that make it look like the leprechaun escaped.”
I put together an embarrassingly meager trap: a cardboard box laid out on the floor with a kitchen spoon set askew beside it. I wanted it to have the appearance that the spoon had held the box upright, and that when the leprechaun went inside the box, it had knocked the spoon over and trapped itself.
Of course, I needed to have something that looked like incentive for the leprechaun to have gone into the box in the first place. So, I found some gold coins that we just happened to have lying around from one of their board games, and laid those out in a trail leading from the box to our patio door.
But how did the leprechaun get out of the box?
Good question. I hadn’t thought of that.
So, I cut a jagged hole into the box to make it look like the leprechaun had chewed his way out.
Don’t you think that’s going to traumatize your kids?
Yes, Sharon, I do, but I’M ALL OUT OF TIME AND CHOICES HERE!
I tucked a few dollar bills under the box to hopefully smooth over whatever fright the kids felt about the evidently sharp-toothed leprechaun that had infiltrated our home. Money solves most problems, right?
I went to bed feeling like the very stupid #chaosmom that I am.
To my surprise, this morning my kids were absolutely freaking delighted with my makeshift leprechaun trap. They bounced all around the house, shrieking about how the crafty leprechaun got away but not without accidentally leaving behind his gold coins and his cash!
So, it turned out just fine. Somehow, I managed not to let my kids down, and now they have a really exciting story to tell their friends at school today.
See there? Even us #chaosmoms know how to make magic for our kids.
