Our son, the traffic Gestapo

TB has always done well with his colors. So it was no surprise to Amazing Daddy and myself that he would start translating this knowledge to understanding what red, yellow and green meant on a traffic signal. What we didn't expect was the transformation of TB into the "Traffic Gestapo."

It started out small, as it often does; first, a comment when Daddy turned right on red. Now, tell me, how do you explain the right on red rule to a 3 year old? He seems to have accepted it as a fact, although it took several weeks of squealing "No Daddy (or mommy as the case may be), No, it's red" from the back seat. Now Mommy doesn't do well with loud, expected shrieks frback seatackseat. And the incessant "but why Mommy, why" doesn't help. Imagine my surprise though, when my response of "because Noah, that's the way it is, you just have to accept it" seemed to work.

But the traffic light observations didn't stop there.

Now let me clarify, I'm a fairly law abiding driver; it's always been my opinion that if I don't follow the rules, and I get caught, I deserve the ticket. I'll brag a bit though, because to this day, at the age of 38, I have never actually received a traffic ticket! Of course, I won't be surprised when I get one on my way home tonight. My "lawfulness" tends to annoy my husband at times, especially when I tell him to slow down. It also appears to annoy him (or perhaps drive him f-ing nuts) when I tell him what color the light is. For someone who likes to push the yellow, he's awfully slow to start on the green. I used to joke and say I couldn't wait until TB could take over my job of telling Daddy what color the light is.

So, imagine my reaction, when the other day I was taking TB to preschool and I was stopped at a red light where I needed to make a left turn. The oncoming traffic gets the green first, due to a left turn signal on that side. I don't typically have a problem making that turn at that time of the morning, but I'm always aware of the line of cars behind me which can get rather long. Apparently I was a bit distracted, because there were no oncoming cars and before I got the green I started to turn anyway. TB SHRIEKED at me "MOMMY, NO, it's RED, DON'T GO!" It stopped me in time and I thanked him and told him he did a great job. And he said..."Mommy, that was a BIG THUMBS DOWN!"

Well he told me!

Then a couple days later Amazing Daddy pushed a yellow light when he was making a left turn, and the light turned red as he was going through. Don't even think that TB let that one pass. "Daddy, NO. RED LIGHT. That's a BIG THUMBS DOWN!"