Family Memory (XLVI) – How Did He Know?

By Thinking Beyond the Box on July 2, 2024

As an adult, you grow eyes in the back of your head--at least kids think that. Ultimately, it's just experience and it's really useful as a teacher/coach...and as a parent. I still smile thinking about how Erick and Brigitte thought I was a wizard of some sort.

It happened back when they were six and eight or so--that range, anyways, old enough to play together without adult supervision. It was summer and they were upstairs in the hall in front of their rooms playing some sort of boardgame--I want to say it was one of those games shooting BBs or Gnip-Gnop. I was downstairs and walked by the open door to our upstairs and, as you'd expect from kids that age who've been playing together for a while, they were arguing.

I don't mind disagreements, but tempers were clearly rising, so I put on the 'Dad voice' and called upstairs, "What's going on?" ...got back the standard "Nothing." Uh-huh. "You guys, you need to stop bickering, do something else, and leave each other alone for a white. All right?"

The "Okay" came from both kids in unison. I would've liked to have seen their faces honestly. Did they roll their eyes? Now, think like a kid--you agreed to what your parent has told you to do? C'mon...you know. I knew. So after they agreed, I remained at the bottom of the stairs listening in total Parent Ninja mode.

My kids ain't dumb. They were still arguing but they knew it had to be done with less volume, so their bickering continued after a silence of 3-4 seconds. Now, I didn't hear any of this. I just remember childhood and dealing with my own pain-in-the-butt sister. After that 3-4 second pause, I used my slightly-annoyed Dad Voice: "I said knock it off!"

I heard Brigitte whisper to Erick, "How did he know?"

Magic. Parent magic. But when you're young, you know not to tempt Fate by continuing after getting caught AND a second warning. They wound up doing other stuff and were fine after that--partially because I'd 'yelled' at both of them, so they now had common cause to be sneaky if they wanted.

How did he know?? I smile as I remember that, as I write this. I think about it when the kids are in the house upstairs now as adults.