The first sign of things to come

The other day I saw something that reminded me of a story I had almost forgotten. I decided to write it down so I would remember the first time I knew parenting was going to be harder than I thought.

When my oldest son Jacob was around four years old we took him to a pet store to buy some fish. The store was very busy and as little children do he was so caught up at looking in the fish tanks he forgot to look where he was walking.

I was about 15' away and saw the whole thing. A very tall man, in his early thirties was walking towards Jacob. When he realized Jacob was going to walk into him, he did one of those spread the legs, hop from foot to foot moves that people do when they try to avoid running into a child. He never had a chance, Jacob walked right under him and became tangled in his legs. Jacob went down. How the man didn't fall I'll never know.

As I was getting to Jacob he was already up and the man was apologizing. Well Jacob was having none of it. He looked at the man and accused him of pushing him down. I told the guy I saw the whole thing and he didn't do anything wrong. Upon hearing this Jacob got louder with his accusation that he was pushed. By now all the people in the section were staring at the poor man. I then apologized to the man for Jacob running into him. This seem to set Jacob off as he pointed at the man and screamed "YOU PUSHED ME DOWN! WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY DID YOU PUSH ME DOWN?"

The man kept apologizing, I was telling Jacob it was his own fault and Jacob was getting louder. I was feeling bad for the guy because there is no way to defend yourself against a four year old hurling accusations at you. God help him He was trying but Jacob had him backing up. Then Jacob turned on the tears. When the man saw the tears he went into full retreat. With everybody watching he turned and all but ran out of the store. I felt horrible but I could tell Jacob was satisfied he had proven his point, the tears immediately stopped.

At that moment I realized that raising my son was going to be harder than I thought. Forget the diapers, the potty training and the sleepless nights, all child's play for the amateurs to sort out. When I saw my son hold his ground so firmly against a larger and older opponent it surprised me a bit.


I spent the 30 minute ride home trying to explain to my son that he wasn't pushed and that he was wrong to yell at anyone in public especially an adult. His reality was that he was pushed and he felt he had the right to defend himself, I could do nothing to change his mind. It may seem like a small incident but It was certainly a sign of things to come.