One weekend, I had taken my sons Grant and David with me on a couple of errands, an endeavour they affectionately refer to as a "field trip". These errands or "field trips" have come to be expected by my boys and it's now at the point where every weekend they pester me to no end to go on a field trip.
I don't recall what our mission was on this particular field trip. However, the trip back home was memorable. As we drove home, the boys sat in the back seat of my truck carrying on, chattering and generally making enough irritating noise to drive any adult nuts. I asked them to use their inside voices as the volume of chatter increased. Each successive request I made for quiet was followed by a further increase in volume and laughter as they both enjoyed the game they thought we were playing. After several rounds of this, I had had enough. I exclaimed that if they did not quiet down they would be getting a spanking. Grant, my oldest son responded to this technique quite favorably, but my youngest son David thought it was funny and he began squealing at the top of his lungs. Finally, I warned him, if you make another sound, I'm going to pull this truck over and leave you by the side of the road. He replied with a laugh and another squeal. I pulled the truck over and put it in park and asked, "Do you see those woods over there? Do you want to sleep in the woods tonight?" He nodded with a devlish smile. So I upped the ante. "It's going to be dark tonight and you'll have to sleep all by yourself. Do you want to do that?" He replied with another nod and grin, calling my bluff. All the while this was going on my oldest son Grant was hysterical, screaming "No, daddy, No. Don't leave my brother by the road. Don't make my brother sleep in the woods!" Finally, I asked Grant, "Do you want me to leave your brother in the Woods tonight?" He replied "No Daddy please don't leave my brother in the woods." I asked, "Why shouldn't I?" to which he paused and then replied "...because I love him."
All the anger and frustration within me melted away. I put the truck in Drive and we headed home in a quiet peaceful truck. |
