work for two

Ever so often, when I try to convince my son of doing something he does not want to do, like putting the LEGO that is spread out all over the floor, into boxes before going to bed, we end up in a never ending loop of questions and answers. He asks why, I explain, he asks why, I explain, more whys, more explanations and so on and so on. If I run out of arguments before my son runs out if questions, I have a few times retorted to telling him that it is my job as his dad, to teach him that there are things that are important to do even if we do not want to do them.

The other day I became aware that those words had made an impact on him and that he must have been thinking about them a bit. We were getting ready for bed, I was finishing up the kitchen and he was playing with his cars on the floor.
– Let’s go and brunch our teeth, I said when I was ready in the kitchen.
– No, we have not played yet.
– Yes, we played a lot after dinner.
– But that was with LEGO.
– Yes, we played a lot with LEGO.
– But we have not played with cars today.
– It is late now, we can play with cars tomorrow.
– No we need to play with cars now.
– But it is already past bedtime, I promise we will play with cars tomorrow.
– No, we need to play now. It is my job to teach you how to play.

Of course we ended up playing with his cars. And I have been thinking of his words and mine ever since.

Thank you for reading this blog post!