The Fry Lifter
One day, when Cade was three, we met Daddy for lunch at his work’s cafeteria. Halfway through the meal, Cade wandered over to the table next to us, and began chatting with a couple of Amway executives, who were also having lunch. We could see them graciously smiling and nodding toward him as he chattered, so we weren’t too worried, but we did look for the right opportunity to call him back to his seat.
Then we saw Cade reach—mid sentence—and take a French fry from one man’s plate, dip it in his ketchup, and eat it. I immediately darted from my seat, scooped him up, and told him, “Ok, Buddy… Say, ‘Bye bye!’”.
Back at our table, it was difficult explain to Cade the error of his ways, since we had just allowed him to snitch every last fry from our own plates (which was probably why he wandered over in the first place).
Our kids learn right from wrong in the context of our family. Fry lifting, manipulating, ingratitude, rudeness, and taking advantage of people… all of these are categorized as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ simply by what Cade sees in our home. Parenting holds some weighty responsibility... with a lot more than fries at stake!