A man's man

I almost had a new reputation at church as a man who keeps his family in line, including his wife. ALMOST, I said.

Get this picture.

I'm in Sunday school listening to a fabulous teacher tell us many spiritual things, and my wife walks in the back and taps me on the shoulder.

"Preston's having a hard morning and I need your help."

I get up and follow her out.

"He's been running from me and he refuses to go to class. He's very near throwing a fit."
I go out into the foyer with my wife to find him and he's not to be seen. Sheila's pretty mad at this point. (Her days of actually chasing after a kid down the hall are pretty much near the end.)
Then I see him hiding under a coffee table.

I go into 'Dad' mode.

"Get up. What's the problem?"

Whining ensues.

"I can't understand you when you whine. Speak clearly please"

Note my calm tone?

He refuses to speak or sit up on the couch and begins to make some rather ugly comments.

We all have those days, right?

So here comes the good picture.

I'm sitting on Couch B, leaning forward in intense mode, Sheila is sitting on Couch A leaning back frustrated and nearly at her wits end. Preston is curled in a ball at the X mark, refusing to speak and trying to hide from the world.

Along comes a friend who happens to live across the street from me, on his way from class to the Men's room.

Before he walked in the foyer I had made the statement to Preston, "If you refuse to talk to us and apologize to Mommy for making rude and ugly comments, then you will lose your privileges for the day."
Just as he entered the room Preston's time for compliance had run out and I made the statement, "OK. If that's how you want to act then you have lost all your privileges for today. And you can't earn them back."

I noticed a pause in his step and I was hoping that he wouldn't feel the need to enter the conversation, but he went on about his mission.

We finally got Preston up on the couch, Couch A that is, and he apologized and was calming down when my friend returned from his chore.

As he walked back through the foyer I heard a chuckle and he went on back to class.

It wasn't until after church that I saw things from his perspective. Seems he had heard just the statement about losing privileges and not been able to see Preston hiding behind the couch. This fellow thought I was making the statement about losing privileges to my wife. He told me later that at first he wanted to talk to me about my marital communication skills until he saw the whole picture.

I'm not sure if he wanted to correct them or learn from them.