Kintropy In Action

Every year here in Portland, there is an event called Wordstock. It is a convention of independent book publishers of the Northwest. Robert and I always look at the ad and salivate at the idea of finding the next great read off the beaten track. This year was our second attempt at walking the festival.

Hannah liked being out and said "Hi" to anyone who looked her way. Our son, however, had different plans. He had his own agenda for the day and that was to play video games. Five minutes in, he began by trying to pull us every direction, then proceeded through excuses:

• "I’m Tired!"
• "My stomach hurts!"
• "I’m hungry!"

Even though we had all had lunch before we went to the event, he claimed he was hungry. Robert took him to the snack area and left me and Hannah to wander the event. Hannah like all three year olds wants to move more, so actual browsing didn’t happen. It was a look while constantly in motion. I returned to give Robert a chance. Robert was not happy. Gabriel had dropped his hot dog and was pouting over the conversation. Robert went off with Hannah.

I asked Gabriel if he understood why he was in trouble.

"I shouldn’t of told you I was hungry?"

"It’s always OK to tell us your hungry. It is not OK to demand that we only do what you want to do."

After some humming and hawing he said, "I was bored."

"I’m sorry you’re bored. Not everything is about you. Daddy and I do a lot of things that you find fun that we think are boring, but we don’t bother you the whole time about wanting to go. We let you have fun. You’re not being fair to Mommy and Daddy."

He then proceeded to drop his chips and Robert came back frazzled. Hannah was done. We agreed Gabriel could have no choices the rest of the day since he didn’t let us do the one thing we wanted to do. He had no choice of t.v. shows or what video games Daddy played.

Once we got home I looked at Robert and said, "You know the only one who got a book at the event was Gabriel, and he got two."

--Mom

p.s. Next year we are going to figure out when it is ahead of time and make arrangements for the children.