American Idle (Threats)

You have either been the victim of one or the instigator. I'm talking about idle threats. There are the typical ones:
"You better stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!"
Or, "Wait till your father comes home. You're going to get it!"
Or, "If you don't pick up your toys, you won't see the light of day until you're 18!"
When driving across the country with two young boys, no dvd player (see previous post), and thinning patience I have found myself uttering threats that I know I would never follow through with. Apparently, Wes and Wyatt know this, too.
For example, as we were driving from Utah to Steamboat Springs the other day, we stopped at a view point of the beautiful Utah desert. (No joke, it was actually beautiful, see picture below.)
Carrie and I wanted to get a simple picture of the boys overlooking the beautiful view. Pretty simple task, no? Before we snapped the first picture, we told Wes, "Get your hands away from your face." and Wyatt, "Look at Mommy's head not the ground." So we took the first one...
Wyatt looked at his shadow and Wes is squinting, but looks like he's sitting on the pot. After reviewing it, we told the boys to try again. But again Wes was playing with his hands and Wyatt was looking at anything but the camera. Theat number one came out: "Boys, if you don't do what we ask we will get back in the car right now and not rest."* So, picture number 2 was taken:
This time Wes is again squinting, but Wyatt looks like he is sitting on the pot. After some more threats, "Boys! If you don't both smile at the camera we won't go swimming when we get to the hotel! You don't want that to happen, do you?"* So, we decided to do a different pose with them standing up.
Again, Wyatt sees something on the ground that is much more exciting than Carrie's camera and Wes looks like he's seen a ghost with his raised eyebrows. I was beyond frustrated! Remember, we have been driving in a car all day long and all that comes with that...bickering boys, slow rv's, intermitent rain, hotel quality coffee, etc., So, the next threat was from me. "Boys, if you can't do this I am going to drop you off at the top of that cliff, drive back down here, take a picture of mom and I, and then come back and get you!"*

Well, maybe it was not that dramatic. But the point was made. I was serious and the boys knew it. After some tears, Carrie telling me, "Really, Bill!?!" and some kinder, gentler words, we got the picture we were hoping for.
Several more hours were spent in the car. The threats were less severe ("Wes, give that toy to your brother or I'm throwing it out the window!") and we survived the 7 hour trek to Steamboat Springs. It is beautiful here and I will post more about it later (think rodeo, ski lift, and bbq).

*The Lassiter family does not endorse nor regularly use the parenting styles illustrated here. Maybe some of it was made up, maybe not. You'll never know.