Dalton is the easiest kid in the world to raise. He is naturally sweet and giving and he gets along with everyone. He always tries to make everyone happy and I don't really have to do a whole lot with him as far as discipline goes. When he does act up, it's always a shock, but never has he done anything like what he did this afternoon.
We had to run home and change for church right after school this afternoon, so I told the boys to go ahead and switch turns in the front seat, which meant that Dalton had to get in the back so Warrick could sit up front. Dalton didn't want to. So he just didn't get back in the car.
When he saw that I was seriously going to leave without him, he decided to ride with us, but he wanted to get something from the house first. I didn't let him because we were in a hurry, so he thought he should show me what's up by sitting in the floor of the car and not bothering with being in a seat or a seat belt.
I drove down our road, telling him to get into a seat, but he still hadn't by the time we got to the stop, so I pulled over and waited for him to get in his seat. He said he was stuck, so I reached down to help him stand up. At the same moment, Warrick yelled "there's a police officer!" I'm not sure why my kids do this, because they have no reason to fear the cops (as far as I know), but they always announce it. The police cruiser was parked about twenty feet away, and I think he lives down the road he was on, but for some reason, he was just hanging out there.
Dalton immediately grabbed his arm and started screaming "Mommy! You hurt my arm, you hurt my arm!" I didn't hurt his arm, yo. I was trying to help him stand up, but I didn't do it nearly as roughly as I should have at that point. I thought there was something really wrong with him, so I patiently tried to help him up so I could see. There wasn't anything wrong, so I told him to get in the seat and buckle up.
He said no, so I turned around and told him to obey. He started jumping all over the car, screeching "NONONONONONONONOOOOOO!" I got him by the back of the neck and said (very quietly) "Get. In. Your. Seat." He continued to scream about how badly I was hurting him, so I got out of the car to go around by his door. That's when I saw the cruiser sitting there...I had forgotten all about him. It dawned on me what Dalton was doing.
As I opened his door, I yelled "Are you trying to get me in trouble with the POLICE?" Ok, probably not my best moment, but I was in shock. The good news is that I think I scared the policeman, because he suddenly decided he did want to go ahead on down his driveway and quit worrying about me.
But seriously? So I told Dalton to get out of the car and made him stand on the side of the road where the view of the departing cruiser was blocked. I gave him a very loud speech about how I didn't care if the police saw him getting in trouble or not, and that he would be in just as much, if not more, trouble with the cops as he was with me for not wearing his seat belt. Dalton looked at me in complete fear because he was learning an important lesson: Mommy is more badass than the police. Yep. So he put his seat belt on and I never had to tell him that the policeman was gone before I yelled at him, and if he hadn't been, I'm not really sure what I would have done.
