Sgt. Vincent Trent sighed at the end of another situation in which his younger son Milton was unhappily grounded, and then went to talk with his mother, Mrs. Jubilee Trent.
“I realized something today,” he said. “A lot of what Melissa and I are doing is going over Milton's head, because we want him to understand the rationale of what to do and what not to do, but to him, the most rational thing to do is the most fun thing, and cleaning a floor by sliding along it with a soapy sponge attached to his butt sounds better than pushing a broom or mop.”
“I would have reminded him and George that their butts are round and thus they couldn't get into a square corner without crashing into the wall,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said, and Sgt. Trent cracked up.
“Yeah, that's on their level,” he said.
“Their level of understanding 'no,' based in reality,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said. “Yes, you and Melissa are in charge of them, and your 'no' should be sufficient. But if you want your children to have understanding as well as being obedient, you do need to get it down to where they can get it.”
Sgt. Trent decided to go try all this out, and he noticed where Milton's eyes lit up: “Round butts can't slide safely in and out of square corners.”
“Oh yeah,” Milton said. “Round peg, square hole type of situations … oh, George and I were planning to do it all luge style too, so we really could have gotten hurt.”
The sergeant smiled gently in his effort not to bust out laughing.
“I'm just curious how y'all were going to build the luge,” he said.
“Well, a bunch of dishrags tied to each other's sponge pack would have worked,” Milton said, “but then again, luges don't really do square corners either.”
“But a mop and broom can fit any shape,” Sgt. Trent said, “and then when you get done, you get to go play instead of ending up here.”
“Yeah, definitely more fun in the end,” Milton said.
“Tomorrow, son, we'll run through it,” Sgt. Trent said as he got off the bed. “Good thing George's grandfather and I caught y'all early – he'll be out of being grounded tomorrow, too.”
“OK, thanks, Dad, and, I'm sorry,” Milton said, and he and his father shared a big hug before Milton to apologize to his mom as well before coming back to his room and settling in to read to pass the time.
“It worked, Mom,” Sgt. Trent said to his mother. “He got it!”
“See, Milton is the son of this smart boy I knew named Vincent,” Mrs. Jubilee Trent said, “so I figured he was at least as smart. We just all need a little help understanding things at our level.”
