Once upon a time there was a little boy named Sammy. Sammy was playing outside one day. He was playing on the grass with his ball. All of a sudden, the ball went into the road! Sammy didn't know what to do, so he went inside and told his mommy. His mommy said, "Well, we'll just have to get you a new ball because it's dangerous to go out to the road." Sammy went back outside to play, but he still wanted his ball. He didn't listen to his mommy and he went down the driveway and into the road to look for his ball. At first the big cars and trucks scared him, and then a really really big sssssssssnake came out and said, "I'm a big mean ssssnake, and I'm going to bite you!" and the snake bit him! He bit Sammy right on the knee! Sammy cried and ran back inside to tell his mommy and daddy. He said, "Mommy, Daddy, the snake bit me! On the knee! I'm sad and it hurts!" They said, "Oh no! We're going to go get that big mean snake!" and they went outside and found the big snake. Sammy's daddy said, "Listen up you big mean snake, you don't bite anyone!" and the snake said, "Sssssss, I'm going to bite you!" and he tried to bite, but daddy swung him around, and swung him around again and then THREW him really far, into the woods. The snake was gone, and everyone was O-K. Sammy got a band aid for his boo boo. The End.
Sam loves this story, and variations of it. He asks me to tell him The Story About The Snake, and he pays full attention, barely blinking. Afterwards he usually emphasizes something someone said, like "that's RIGHT, you don't bite ANYONE, snake!"
Clearly, the moral is to not go out into the road. I made up this story on the spot some months ago because I was (and am) paranoid about him sneaking off and walking out onto the street.
Maybe it's a very bad idea to use this scare tactic. I don't really know. I might be an unfit parent (recall the walk in the toxic wasteland). Regardless, it's a little less scary than what my grandmother used to tell me to deter me from straying off toward the railroad tracks: the devil dwells on the other side, and the electricity on the tracks prevents him from jumping over to our side. Nice, huh? Ya. I spent a couple years of my childhood in constant fear that the tracks would lose their juice. You bet your tush I never went down there though...instead I stared out my bedroom window in that direction, reassuring myself that everything was running smoothly.
2 comments:
My mother told me not to go to the bathroom during thunderstorms because the lightning would come up through the toilet and strike my butt. No idea why she told me this, but to this day I feel the need to hold it while it's thundering outside.
I'll most likely tell my kids that too. For fun.
For a moment there I thought maybe you had an evening like mine yesterday - during which I went down to the basement to find a nest of garter snakes living under our Bilco door and dropping through the crack in the intervening door into our basement! Aaaack!!!
Anyway, I love Sammy's emphasis. He's sure to keep that snake in line - with mommy and daddy's help, of course :)
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