It works everywhere!

The Voice of Doom works even on small children!

So we were in the Chinese buffet in the mall last night. They seated a group behind us that Mr. Samoa knew slightly (it was one of his old college professors, Prof's mildly autistic brother, and Prof's 2 kids). Prof is divorced and is a "weekend daddy", which is going to get important in a moment.

Prof had to go get food for the kids, so left the kids with Brother. (I would say kids are about 3 or 4 and 18 mos. respectively) Well, Brother did not know enough to correct the child when he starts trying to crawl OVER TOP OF THE BOOTH into ours! o_O Had he not been stopped, he would have either cracked his skull open on our table or landed square on Mr. Samoa's head. So I decided to take a chance on being bitched out (I figured it was the lesser of two evils between "damaged kid/Mr.Samoa and irate parent"), signed "sit" and said, "Nononono, sweetie, you're going to fall!" So, sit he did, rather to my surprise.

Well, I did not get bitched out. It became rather clear from the subsequent father-son interactions that the poor man had no idea how to deal with kids and rather welcomed assistance. ("Tyyloxx, WHAT are you DOING?" in increasingly crazed/desperate tones). I can live with this; I do not mind doing the disciplining, I DO mind when they're clueless but throw a fit when you try to do it. So, we had here a situation that was manageable, and I must admit to finding myself struggling to keep a straight face!

So, then the kid tries to climb over again. This time I signed "No" and said very calmly but firmly, "NO, sweetie. You need to sit." Little Tyyloxx did a double take, sat back down and was not seen in our booth again for the rest of the meal! Choirs of angels sang.

Moral of the story: 1)If I can do it, you can too. 2) Parents, take a clue from this man. If for some reason you cannot handle your kid, don't bitch when someone who can, does. At least he got that far!