The Magical Power of Stickers

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I would do just about anything to get stickers.

It didn’t matter what kind of sticker either… puffy stickers, glitter stickers, scratch ‘n sniff stickers, garbage pail stickers…. I didn’t discriminate by any means. If it was a sticker I had to have it!

In kindergarten, at the innocent age of 5 years old I went to get my ears pierced with my mom, dad and grandma. I was a wimp & pretty sure I cried even before they came near my ears. The one thing that got me through was the promise of stickers after I had both ears pierced. Immediately afterwards dad held true on the promise… I got stickers.

Now these just weren’t any ordinary stickers… they were the COOLEST nail stickers ever!

These were the closest i could find the resembled the ones I got ...

They were icecream cones, rainbows & butterflies that you stuck right on your nails. I thought they were the best things ever… even sharing them with my friends at school.

They held great power for me 27 years ago & now I see their influence & magical abilities on a daily basis at work.

From reinforcing appropriate behaviors & words to potty training to rewarding good deeds to brave littles that get hurt to visiting littles, stickers have the power to make all in the world right… even if it is in the minds of a 2 year old.

Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than one of our littles running over to tell me that they went on the potty and earned a sticker… Or their teaching praising them for using their words (nice words at that) instead of their hands earning the little a sticker. Their excitement over a little sticky piece of
paper they proudly plaster on their shirt (or hand, forehead or nose for that matter) is so cool!

The most popular sticker of choice recently seems to be Disney’s CARS.

Winners with the littles

I’ve come to find they are a hot commodity
when working with littles… just sayin’.

There have been a few ocassions where I was slacking and didn’t have any stickers & was forced to improvise… what does one do??? Post-it notes come in very handy for reasons other than cluttering my desk & computer screen. Yep, a post-it note with a big ‘ol smiley face slapped on it amazingly has the same effect of smearing a big ‘ol cheesy smile across a 4 year olds face too!

Sometimes it takes sitting back & observing a bunch of littles … really makes ya appreciate the simple things in life. Something as little as a sticker helped to not only make the day of a two year old but also made an ever-dreaded Monday much brighter for this 32 year old gal.

So when you’re having an off day or a blah moment… give it a shot. Go buy yourself a sticker. It may just work!

What’s something special you received as a reward when you were a kiddo?<strong