Which one? I thought I held that distinction - guess I'll have to try harder.

Meh, I wasn't thinking of toddlers, I was thinking of children.
I still believe that they should be able to be instructed what to do by their parents and comply with it, but I bow to the weight of collective experience.

That would explain what I see every time I go to the supermarket I suppose.

Oh, that is the goal, to be sure. You tell them what to do even when you know they won't do it, because at some point they'll decide they don't like the step that comes next, and actually start listening. But in the meantime, all you really have is your superior size. Minifob thinks I won at the mechanic, because I picked him up and took him away. Eventually he'll behave in the face of that threat. But he must never realize that he successfully prevented me from getting what I wanted too (getting the car maintenance done,) or you'll have mutiny on your hands.

I have been getting a lot of mileage out of "We can do it the easy way or the hard way, it's your choice." For now he sees that he has a choice about how "it" will be done, rather than whether "it" will be done. And as long as I have the size advantage and am willing to rough him up a bit I'm not worried about him calling my bluff.

@Flint, get the BBC planet earth series dvds, they really satisfy the need to teach kids about nature and animals in a non disney way. eg no, polar bears and leopard seals are not cuddly and cute. Warning: BBC is not afraid of gore so you should vett the films 1st.

Lemme see here - as my kids got older and understood a little more of life, I had a favorite saying.

This family is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship and I'm the dick!

I can see how parents might find it inconvenient having toylike cars that kids can't play with in the waiting room. But...it's a garage right? I don't know what it's like there, but garages really, really don't take kids into account. They're just not kid places to be. They're barely female places to be. Pretty much everywhere is designed with adult males in mind. In Sundae's defence, I would never anticipate waiting rooms in garages to be anything other than kid neutral, if not downright kid unfriendly.

Really? There's a big plastic playhouse, a TV, AND a woman's restroom where I get my Jeep fixed...

Here you're lucky to get a coffee vending machine, a few chairs and a tatty copy of Auto Trader. And that's in the big chains! In the independents you just go into the workshop and holler.

Our son just looooved Mary Poppins. (We ought to watch it again, it's been a while.) And he got a "thing" about umbrellas. We couldn't walk past an umbrella display without him freaking out. We found some small ones at a dollar store, so after that he had his own it it wasn't quite so much of a problem. (We were a bit worried he'd decide to jump off the stairs or something)

Business Op for you SG -set up a a family friendly garage. Although IIRC, places like Halfords were generally OK -safe and clean. ish

I've just spent my friday evening at the Kirkstall Labour branch social. Which is fine and good and it's nice to meet up with fellow party members outside of our myopic little branch....but Ed Milliband (secretary of state) was there and did a q&a session and it pissed me off. Christ, sometimes, I wouldn't vote for us.

That happened to me yesterday actually. It wasn't a social, but a press conference.
:greenface
I'm still actually pretty pissed and made another move in a more positive direction, and quite frankly, the one that has been supported during press meetings, but voted against in private.

Don't get discouraged, Dana. It's hard to get more than three people to agree where to go for dinner, much less how to run a community. That's why compromise will always be part of politics.

We can tell from your postings that you are trying to make a difference in your bit of the world. That's more than most can say. Just keep slugging.

i have applied for my 15th rental property and with about 20 people at each open inspection, i dont like my odds.

Nah, I know what I'm good at. I'm going to pimp myself out as a babysitter.