One morning at preschool, a child brought a large, plastic dinosaur to the wooden dollhouse and began to stomp the dinosaur and knock over the doll furniture. As I saw this happen . . .
FLASHBACK!
When I was a child, I had a Holly Hobbie cardboard dollhouse. It had paper dolls that I meticulously cut and dressed with paper clothes. Now, why on earth this paper house was a good idea, I'll never know. It was not a good idea. Not for one with an older brother. Like the preschooler did, my brother came upon my dollhouse with a dinosaur. He stomped that dinosaur all over my house. My house was ruined.
Back in the classroom, I stopped the child and told this tale to my preschooler. I told him how it made me very sad, how we had to use a lot of tape to fix it, and how dinosaurs do not belong in the dollhouse. I then said how angry my parents were. At that point he raised his head. Very interested, the child asked, "What happened to your brother?"
Now, I know my preschoolers and I know their parents. Some parents use a spanking now and again. So did my own parents back in the day. As I thought it over, I just said exactly what happened ... in preschool terminology:
"Well ... he got a whoopin."
The child replied, "Daaannnnggggg!" and took the dinosaur back to the block area.