One of my favorite medicinal quackery snake oil salesman tricks when a child gets an owie is to pretend to reach into my pocket and pull out a pinch of pixie dust and sprinkle it on, heavy. I inform the gymnast that I don't have much left, but that this would make the boo-boo feel better; but they have to believe for the healing to kick in.
Sometimes the older kids will either smile or roll their eyes. Smaller kids might deny it's real. My two favorite moments was when I think I actually made one kid (it might have been Espi) go from waah-waah tears to instantaneous laughter and a big grin. (Remember: The pain will only go away when it stops hurting; and laughter is the best medicine to nullify the hurting).
The other moment (and it might have been little Maddy....or maybe it was one of my Perfect 10s...) was when I applied the pixie dust and then asked if that made it feel better. I received an endearing, frownie-pouty nod of the head in the affirmative, and the gymnast got back to work. That one made me laugh, that she actually thought it worked. Hey, the power of belief works!
This reminds me: I have to stock back up on pixie dust. I'm down to my last few pinches left....
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