May 16: Family Night, Fire Trucks, Battle

This evening, we are taking our children to the annual Family Night at my daughter's school.  There will be face painting and hot dogs and a book fair.  There will be crafts for kids and a clown (whom I will avoid because clowns are, by definition, evil).  And, best of all, there will be fire trucks to climb on.

At least, in my three-year-old son's mind, the fire trucks are "best of all."  Last year, when we took him to Family Night, he spent the entire time crawling through, sitting in, and climbing over the fire trucks.  If I tried to get him to move on, he'd start screaming.  Eventually, I had to literally pry his fingers from the fire truck's bumper in order to leave.

That's the battle I have in my future.  Of course, my wife and I have agreed that it will not be a battle.  We will tell him before we arrive at Family Night that he's going to have to wait until his sister is done inside the school before he can go to the fire trucks.  We will remind him when we get to the school.  We will keep reminding him throughout the evening.  I, personally, do not believe this tactic will make a difference.

There will be a scene.  There will be screaming.  There will be crying.  And that's just me.  My son will have an all-out nuclear apocalypse of a tantrum.

Pray for Saint Marty tonight.  He's going to need it.

Prepare for my son's mushroom cloud