Friday, August 9, 2013

A Nail Cutting Puzzle

One mom told me recently that she cuts about 100 nails weekly. All coming from her own family.
Four young kids and her own nails.
The math is going like that:
Five people times (10 hand nails+ 10 feet nails)  = 5 x 20 = 100

Counting this I started to appreciate my older kids' abilities to use the nail cutter themselves. My two-year old though is giving me a very hard time with every nail-cutting attempt. I have to catch her, sit her on my lap in front of a TV screen or capture her attention with ridiculous stories while carefully concentrating on her tiny hands and feet. And even then, her patience rarely lasts for more than 5 fingers.
I have heard that it is even harder with cats and dogs.


What is your nail math?
Do you have any advice on streamlining the process?

Image by GeoFx via Flickr, distributed under CCL.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the photo!

Anonymous said...

Bribery. Tell them they will get a treat after their nails are cut. they will be lining up to have their nails cut. Another thing is to have lunch after the nails are cut.

Gurubandhu

Anonymous said...

Maria,

I have not been to this site in quite awhile. I just noticed that on the July 7 puzzle, I signed in as Anonymous but forgot to add my name. Sorry.
http://themathmompuzzles.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-bar-joke-and-bar-puzzle.html
Gurubandhu

Maria said...

Gurubandhu - I added you a puzzle point for the Bar Joke and Puzzle. Bribery works well with my 10 and 13 year old but I think my 2 year old doesn't get it yet:) She is also so curious that she wants to handle the nail clipper and nail file herself. I happen to have two of each and give her second copies for distraction. But this simultaneously makes it harder for me to cut her nails:)

Anonymous said...

Cut your 2 year old's nails while she is asleep. Kids can sleep very soundly and the chances are that she won't even notice. This approach has worked for my family.

One another approach: Kids who are a little older than 2, say 4 or 5, can help cut their own nails. Even with child nail clippers they don't have the hand strength to cut their nails themselves, but they can help guide the clipper to the right spots and then you can do the actual clipping.

TracyZ

Edith.morris said...

I put on a favorite YouTube video that is about the length that I think it will take to cut one set of nails. If they are sitting nicely they can watch, if they are struggling I pause it. If they sat well and I don't finish a few nails when the movie is done, I call it good and pick a longer movie next time. I also cut their nails after bath or shower time because they are softer and cut better.

anne-marie said...

I love the picture too!
I have always used some special baby scissors (no nail clippers) to cut my kids nails when they were younger and I do not remember of special problems regarding this area. I guess that the good thing when your kids get older is that you just remember the good memories ;)

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