There are times in a man’s experience on the road of fatherhood when he must stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten before he loses his paternal cool. I had just such an experience a few moments ago.
I had just finished putting the twins to bed, and I was anxious to go to the living room and watch the rest of MNF. To anyone out there who doesn’t know what MNF means, it stands for Monday Night Football.
I had just sat down in the Living room and hadn’t even reached for the remote yet when my oldest kid came traipsing out and like a little police informer to blow the whistle on her younger brother’s whining and complaining back in his bedroom. I asked her to please retrieve her brother so I could steel myself up and not lose my temper.
Now there could have been any number of reasons why my son could have been upset. Some of the reasons for his previous bedtime calamities have even been legitimate. I wasn’t really prepared for the cause for his bedtime whimpering. When he came out sniffling, I asked him why he was upset. He proceeded to tell me that he was upset because he couldn’t do any yo-you tricks, of all things. Keep in mind that he’s only six, and that he had just gotten his first yo-yo a week before. He was losing sleep over this, as well as causing me to miss the rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. The only factor that may have preserved his young life was the fact that it’s only the preseason.
So how did I handle the crisis? I gave him a five minute yo-yo lesson and promised him that we would practice together again another day. It’s funny, that such a little thing can be so important to a young child, but that’s the positive thing about the innocence of childhood. It also served as a personal reminder to me that sometimes indulging your child when it really isn’t going to cost you a lot, and picking the battles that you know you can win, can be a wise thing to do as a father.