Posted by drummer (209.105.155.54) on April 24, 2000 at 19:44:42:
In Reply to: Mixed emotions posted by Carl D on April 24, 2000 at 16:53:03:
My young daughters are two and six years old now. A year and a half ago they were six-months-old and four-and-a-half years old. Time is funny that way.
My six-month-old daughter, Sarah, was just beginning to learn how to sit on the floor all by herself. Sarah learned this task rather quickly. She's smart. I decided to teach her that she could trust her daddy. Me! I sat on the floor, in our family room, behind her and conditioned her to fall backwards, from the sitting position, into my arms, when I said, "whoa". 'Whoa' is what a cowboy says to his horse when he wants the horse to stop. Cowboys are good 'conditioners' of horses.
Sarah learned quickly that every time daddy said, "whoa", that she could fall backwards and then be rescued by me, her daddy, before she hit the floor. Sarah and I played for hours. We laughed and giggled. She always fell backwards when I said, "whoa", and I always rescued her before she hit the floor. Sarah clearly trusted me. We were both as happy as could be.
While Sarah and I were being as happy as we could be, my wife was busy waxing the kitchen floor. I'm not sure if my wife was as happy as she could be or not. My wife looked melancholy. I've learned, over the years, to try and be more responsible around the house when my wife is working and looking melancholy, and I'm just playing, so I began to cook dinner. I have become more intelligent that way. I am like a cowboy's horse!
As I stood in the kitchen preparing dinner, and kept a watchful eye on Sarah, who was still perfecting her skills at sitting on the family room floor, my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Megan, came running down the stairs into the kitchen. Megan's little, sock covered feet, hit the newly waxed floor and she began to go ass-over-teacups towards the kitchen table. The whole ass-over-teacups thingie seemed to go by in slow motion. There was nothing I could do to help Megan and her sock-covered feet, and her destiny to collide with the kitchen table. Megan was on her own. Megan performed wonderfully! She overcame all the laws of Physics, regarding motion, friction and gravity. She survived the ass-over-teacups thingie without any harm, what so ever, to her, and the kitchen table. Megan was as happy as she could be. I was happy for her. Megan looked at me and giggled. I looked at Megan and said, "whoa"!
Sarah, who was sitting in the family room and minding her own business, obviously heard me say, "whoa"! Sarah immediately fell backwards onto the floor. I was not there to rescue her. Sarah did not fall backwards in slow motion. She fell backwards rather quickly. As I stated earlier, "she’s smart." Sarah looked up at the ceiling of the family room and looked puzzled. Sarah, like me, is also like a cowboy's horse, now.