Amusing but Important Note to Parents

One thing is certain about the photo of the toddler here: He didn’t invent this level of anger on his own; he picked it up from someone, most likely his father.

I had a similar experience, and I learned something important from it.  When my son was perhaps two years old, I had him in his car seat as I drove him somewhere.  At a certain moment, I had to stop unexpectedly, and he sensed my frustration.  Without a word from me, he yelled at the top of his lungs from the back of the car, “Come on lady!  Will you move it!?”

I’ll admit that this struck me as funny, but I realized two things immediately: a) I must have screamed that precise phrase within his earshot at some prior time in a similar situation, and b) I needed to be far more careful as to what he was learning from me.