Playing Chicken on the way to the Fair

You know how I posted on Monday that we were going to spend the day at the NC State Fair?

Well.

Let me tell you about that.

One of my children (who shall remain nameless, but looks a lot like this)

was in a mood.

I was tired of the mood and the mean and ugly voice that went along with it.

And so in the car on Monday I broke one of the cardinal rules of parenting.

Rule #13: Never make a promise that you are not willing to keep.

(This is why I never threaten to kill my kids. Bodily harm, yes--I am relatively sure I can keep that promise. But all the way dead, probably not.)

I picked up my cell phone, called Russ, and said very loudly into the phone,

I've changed my mind. I'm tired of this child's bad attitude and ugly behavior and we're going to go back home.

And then I turned the van around and started driving north.

Now I wanted to go to the fair. Really bad. I just didn't want to have a nasty child in the car with me for the hour long drive, or spend the day with his nasty attitude. I was counting on him wanting to go to the fair bad enough to be willing to apologize and change his voice & behavior.

So much for that fantasy.

He didn't say a word as we drove back home, then he went straight upstairs and locked himself in his room.

(For various other reasons I couldn't drop him off at home and go to the fair without him.)

I was pretty mad.


Eventually I got over it (and myself) and calmed down enough to talk to him about his behavior. He actually started behaving like a reasonable human being again and was pleasant to be around all afternoon and the next day as well.

Tonight we drove over to the fairgrounds after church just to watch the fireworks. (More on that in a minute.) Tomorrow morning I am going to take the little kids to the fair for a couple of hours. But he will not be going.

I hope this actually sinks in. I hope he will remember that he missed out on a great family experience because of his behavior.

I hope I survive this. Raising teenagers is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

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The fireworks show tonight was great. It only lasts about 15 minutes, it never stops the whole time.

There was something unexpected about the fireworks show. We did not expect to have debris raining down on us the entire time. We sat in about the same place last year and didn't notice it at all. Tonight it was everywhere. Including in our hair.

Here is a short video clip that shows the debris falling.

And here are some pictures. The last one doesn't show the full situation, because of the camera flash. The fuse was actually still burning when it landed in between our windshield and the hood of the van. A woman passing by donated the rest of her Mountain Dew to put out the little fire!

pieces that fell, the top of the van after, and the still burning fuse