My Knight

We have one McDonald's in this city that has a play centre. ONE. And it's on the other side of the city. Most of the Burger King's have play centres, but not our McDonald's.

Consequently, when we happen to be on the other end of the city for other reasons, that's where I take the kids because they love that play centre. They love it so much that they ask quite frequently if they can go to "the McDonald's with the play centre".

It was a zoo. Every child in the city must pester their parents to take them to that McDonald's. On a Friday night. The screaming was most enjoyable to say the least.

I was surprised, therefore, that Seth seemed to be quite whiny. Not that he hasn't been that way at home, but that he was that way at the play centre. He knows that he risks having to sit with me if he has issues of any sort, and tonight he was risking it. He came crying to me after about five minutes of play because Hannah hit his fingers accidentally, while sliding down the slide. I told him that he could just sit with me if he felt his fingers required surgical intervention of any sort, so magically, his fingers didn't hurt so bad after all.

The Informer then informed me that Seth was "bossing kids and telling them what to do". Having witnessed this somewhat myself, I caught Seth the next time he came down the slide to strongly recommend that he quit bossing.

It was only a matter of minutes after that that he again came running to me crying that he "bumped his head". Just as I was explaining once more, very patiently, that this critical condition required serious rest on his mother's knee, he turned around, saw someone, and yelled:

"HEY! THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND! I GOTTA GO!" and took off.

The adults in the room laughed out loud. I turned red. No joke.

He contentedly played with his girlfriend for a while longer. When it was time to go, I told him to go find his sister, tell her it was time to go, and then come down with her.

Miracle of miracles. HE LISTENED! WITHOUT ONE TEENSY WEENSY WHINE.

On the way home, I asked the Informer what her brother was being bossy about. The brother answered instead.

"I was telling those boys to quit scaring the girls!"

Hmm. Perhaps I was a bit hasty in telling him to quit bossing. After all, what girl does not appreciate having a protector?