Believe it or not

Parenting is hard work. I'm constantly teaching, warning, or guiding my kids in some way or another. On occasion, I'm straight-up pleading with my kids to listen to me.At 42, I certainly don't have all the answers, but I have a lot more wisdom than I did when I was 18.So I wonder why the resistance? Did I become the bad guy? Why so little trust in me?I have always had a believing heart. My parents taught me so much...and I believed them. I still do. My kids are not wired the same way. They demand proof, evidence, exact examples of what happens if they DO this or that, or if they DON'T do this or that.As a result, my kids sometimes have very hard lessons to learn. Standing back and watching that happen is even harder.My girls dance in their studio's performance of The Nutcracker. In December, the week of the show was full of car rides to the auditorium, fighting the increasing Christmas traffic each night.One particularly slow-moving night, Julie decided to be funny and yell out nonsensical words to the pedestrians as we crept by.I told her to stop. It's not a good idea.It was silly, but my girls thought it was hilarious."BOFA!"That's what she yelled. Complete and total nonsense, yelled out the car window into the night air, hoping the man walking on the sidewalk would hear.He didn't respond, of course, and we kept driving. Traffic slowed again...and we found ourselves close to him again."BOFA!"I told her to stop again. She didn't. The game was on and the kids were loving the silliness of it all.The cars started to move, and I figured it would be the last time we would see our little pedestrian.Nope.Turning onto the freeway was a joke. No one was moving. We sat in the car, red brake lights everywhere.Out of my peripheral vision, I could see the same man steadily walking, coming from way behind us to almost parallel to our car. At this point, the road had four lanes, and we were in the third from the right. (This only matters because it gives an idea of how far our car was from the sidewalk, where the man was walking)."BOFA!"Then, in what felt like slow-motion, the man started walking...speed-walking...toward our car."WHAT DID YOU SAY? WHAT DID YOU SAY?"He kept screaming as he walked, almost reaching us. Julie was panicked, rolling up her window as fast as she could."WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?""Nothing." It was barely audible."THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!" The man turned and started walking back through three lanes of traffic to the sidewalk.The window finally closed.Julie looked at me, clearly shaken up. She and Annie started crying.They were SCARED.I tried to explain...without saying, "I told you so!! Why didn't you listen to me?" A little unnerved myself, I told them what I already knew.People are unpredictable.The rest of the drive was quiet. I wish I could have put the laughter back in my car that night. But it was gone.I watched a part of their innocence slip away. Their world became just a bit more scary, more confusingly bleak.Sigh.It was sad, but good. They needed a little reality. The world can be a messy place, and I wish my kids would just trust me...listen to me...BELIEVE me.How could I have explained why we don't yell dumb words out the window at people? I couldn't have foreseen exactly what happened that night. But I DID know enough. I knew yelling nonsense out the window was not a good idea. I warned Julie to stop.On this night though, she decided to learn something firsthand. And it was kind of scary for us all.Is it possible that this attitude of doubt and unbelief is more widespread than just my family?Maybe we all need to lay our mistrust aside. Trust the people who love you. Believe the ones who want the best for you.Just believe.