In Flight Entertainment

Our plane ride home from Boise on Sunday was a little more exciting than Sam and I had hopes for. The kids got sick due to a food poisoning incident from the lunch we had before we left. Most people who ate chicken got sick, except for me, because I am indestructible like Wolverine. Ouch, I think I just got a paper cut. Dang that is going to hurt.

Before the kids started getting sick, they provided a little in flight entertainment for the people sitting around us. We were in the plane at Boise waiting to taxi to the runway. I had the pleasure of sitting next to our darling two oldest children. Of course they started fighting over something stupid for a few minutes. Andi was the instigator of the little skirmish, so I told her to knock it off. Did she listen to me? She’s almost 4, of course she didn’t. The fight continues, so I told her again to stop fighting with her brother. She kind of looked at me for a few seconds, and then kept on fighting.

I was pretty annoyed at this point because we hadn’t even taken off yet, and here the kids were already being obnoxious and noisy. So I pushed Andi away from Dylan (since she was sitting on his seat) and again told her to stop fighting.

To give you a little background on what happened next, Andi has been going to Joy School, which is a preschool that a group of moms get together and take turns teaching. They have rules to Joy School, which is probably a good idea because it’ll keep the kids from making shanks and starting riots and that sort of thing. I’m not exactly sure how it goes down, but the rules to Joy School are set to music, including the rules that “We never hit or kick or push” and the kids sing the rules when they’re at Joy School.

Since I had just pushed Andi, I had violated one of the Joy School rules. Apparently Andi thought my push counted as a hit, so she loudly said “Daddy! You hit me!” on the plane full of strangers. I quickly corrected her and said “I didn’t hit you. I lightly pushed you.” Her reply to that was “Daddy, we never push. Don’t ever push me” and then she started breaking out in the Joy School rules song “We never hit or kick or push, we never hit or kick or push ...” She kept singing that over and over again, mixed with “Daddy, don’t ever hit me, OK!”

Don't mess with the enforcer.

Other passengers were amused by my chastisement coming from the sweet little voice of my innocent daughter. I couldn’t help but laugh because she was being so animated (and loud) at explaining the rules that I had just broken. I guess it's not everyday you hear an almost four year old putting her father in his place. I sure learned my lesson. ♪We never hit or kick or push.♪