I am a husband to a wonderful wife, who had a birthday yesterday, and a father to two great kids, who will be called (for sake of anonymity) code names.
One is a boy, born summer 2006. We shall call him BB for reasons only I shall know.
I also have a beautiful daughter born fall of 2008, that I will refer to as Peach.
Now, the story...
BB was chasing Peach around the house. While I have cautioned them about running in the house, I have never said "Don't do it." I guess I am expecting one of them to nose-dive into the baseboard at some point, they will learn on their own, and I don't have to be the mean Daddy for forbidding them to run. TERRIBLE PARENTING 101. I know!
Peach came to a halt well in front of BB when she heard something on the TV that interested her. Probably a rap video, since that is what I tend to watch 90% of the time...I never watch rap videos. It was a weak attempt at humor.
BB had plenty of time to stop. But he ran into her at probably 70% speed. A 20 month old standing perfectly still getting Mack-Trucked by a 4 year old created quite an impact. If Peach was...say...30, she probably would be wearing one of those ridiculous foamy-neck things.
I grabbed BB...
Me: (Loudly with Intense, Scary Eyes) Why did you do that?!?!?
BB: (silence)
Me: We love Peach, don't we?!?
BB: (timidly) yeah
Me: Do you want to see Peach hurt?
BB: yeah
Me: No we don't...Do we want Peach to fall down and cry?
BB: yeah
Me: No, son, we don't. We want Peach happy, right?
BB: no...don't spank me. (which I did)
He had no clue what I was saying!! He was just thinking about the impending smack on the hiney!! Surely he doesn't really wish his sister ill at this stage...right? RIGHT?!?!
Parenting is not easy!
Too funny! well, not the part about Peach getting hurt, but BB's response was classic. Right now we are preventing my oldest from almost any interaction w/ his younger brother, but when those two both get older I'm already assuming that they will be viciously violent towards one another, especially since my brothers and I were pretty rough with each other too.
ReplyDelete