I Was Angered.
Shane – my sweet, angelic little Shane – was digging in a drawer for a piece of gum when I stopped him.
“It’s dinnertime,” I told him. Bill had just pulled into the garage, which means dinner is imminent.
“It’s not dinnertime,” Shane said.
“It is,” I repeated. “Daddy’s home, which means it is time for dinner. Pretty much, you should just reserve 5:00 to 7:00 for dinner.”
“Whatever,” he said. Then he went upstairs, gumless.
Seconds later, I heard a loud THWACK! followed by a BOOM! WHAM! WHACK!
It sounded like a heavily framed work of art – if we’d owned one – had fallen on the floor. I raced to the stairs.
“Shane!” I yelled. “What happened?”
He came out of his room.
“I was angered,” he said. He put two thumbs up and nearly smiled at me.
“Angered at what?”
“At my game,” he said. He’d been playing his allotted video game time, just before the gum incident.
“So you beat up your room?” I asked.
“Just the door,” Shane said. “I just hit it a few times. But it’s done now.”
And he walked away.
He had some anger. He harmlessly (thus far) released it on a door. And now he’s not angry anymore.
And it had nothing to do with my not allowing him to have gum.
I always learn from Shane.