Me: “What’s wrong?”
My Wife: “He scratched the table with the screwdriver!”
Me: “Did you scratch mama’s table with a screwdriver?”
Troy [looking at me in abject terror]: “…”
Me: “I’m not angry, Troy, but I will be, if you don’t answer me. Did you scratch mama’s table with a screwdriver?”
Troy [very quietly]: “Yes.”
Me: “Why did you do that to the table?”
Troy: “It was an accident.”
Me: “No, it wasn’t. An accident is when something happens that you don’t intend to happen. You didn’t accidentally carve three ‘T’s’ into the table. You did it on purpose. You picked up the screwdriver, and you did it intentionally. What I want to know is why? Were you trying to make mama angry? Were you trying to get our attention? Or did you just not care?”
Troy: “No.”
Me: “Do you realize what you did was wrong?”
Troy: “Yes.”
Me: “Are you sorry about it?”
Troy: “Yes.”
Me: “Well, mama is very upset with you. You need to go and apologize to her, and you need to mean it.”
…five minutes go by, and Troy is still sitting on the floor in exactly the same place…
Me: “Troy, look at me. I’m going to teach you a life lesson right now. You need to go and apologize. You don’t need to be sitting here feeling sorry for yourself. This isn’t about you. You made a mistake. We all make mistakes. But now, you need to go make it right. You need to go fix it with mama. Even if you get in trouble, you need to apologize and make it right.”
…five more minutes go by…
Me: “The longer you wait, the angrier she’s going to get. Just get it over with.”
Troy [finding my wife and giving her a hug, sobbing into her stomach]: “I’m sorry, mama.”
My Wife: “I know. It’s okay. Thank you.”
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