Daddy said.....

There’s powerful magic in my house…..

More powerful than a magic wardrobe that takes me into the depths of Narnia!

More powerful than an enchantment placed by the wizarding headmaster of Hogwarts!

In this house the words that I say can be the most powerful thing imaginable:

These last few weeks I have been floating around in confusion when it comes to the boys. For what appeared to be no reason at all they would coming up to me in tears, using their crying voice (you know the one where you don’t actually understand until they’ve calmed down) and then a certain amount of upset aimed towards me.

What have I done?

What has happened in a space of 30 seconds turned them into little messes?

Now if my Daddy brain wasn’t slowly being turned to mush day by day one would imagine that I might have picked up on things sooner.

But after this happening a couple of times I decided to keep note to what actually was going on more. So here is a little context:

I am in the kitchen preparing dinner when James enters the room:

James: “Daddy! William said I couldn’t play with the red car because he was playing with the red car first!”

Me: “It’s OK, you need to share. How about you find the green car you like and then after dinner you can play with the red car”

(Nicely done Dad! You sorted that problem out and James has gone off looking happy. Dad 1 Dramas 0)

2 seconds go past……William enters the room crying.

I go to comfort him and to find out what had happened; in my mind, and probably quite badly, I had assumed James had gone in and aggressively taken the red car despite my, at least what I thought, good parenting suggestion.

But the moment I went near William he cried more! It was almost like he was worried that I was going to hurt him.

Right, this was it! Whatever was going on I am once and for all going to get to the bottom of it! I couldn’t cope with not knowing.

So there I am talking to both the boys to find out what happened when:

William: “Why would you want to break all of my toys and then smack me if I didn’t give James the red car?”

Me: “Excuse me?!”

William: “James said that you told him that you would break all of my toys up and throw them away and smack me if I didn’t give the red car to him”

Me: “That’s not what I said at all! James come here…..What did Daddy say to you in the kitchen?”

At this point James just looks at me……

He has that look in his eyes! That look where he knows full well what was said but in no way is he going to admit it. That look that now means he will try and wiggle his way out of it because he’s ‘the youngest’. “I don’t know?”

Wow…..really?

So there I am explaining what happened, we all had cuddles and all apologised and we were back to normal, right?

Wrong!

15 minutes past and now William is now out in the Kitchen:

“James changed the channel on the TV to a programme he wanted to watch and I don’t want to watch it”

Me: “It’s OK, you got to play with the red car let James watch what he wants to make him happy”

William seemed appeased but I wasn’t going to settle for that, I wanted to follow and listen!

William: “ Daddy said that if you don’t let me watch what I want then he is going to lock you in the porch and you will have to stay there all night!”

James starts crying.

Me: “William ***** ***** (You have to full name them in these instances) I did not say that and you know it! You know exactly what I said!”

Well you would think that after both boys have been caught out that it would all be figured out and go back to normal. But alas it didn’t….

So in my house there is a new magic it goes by the terms of “Daddy said” and the moment these words are uttered my good parenting tactics instantly get transformed in to a social services account of abuse.