I found out on Thursday that I had to go to Richmond Hill to get a police check to bring to the Cayman Islands with me. Robert came into the house to report that Callum had hit him in the face with his lightsaber (crime #1). A few minutes later Callum came crying (he's the actor in the family), and reported that Robert had hit him in the back with his lightsaber (crime #2).
So with both boys standing in front of me, I quickly packed up my things, grabbed my keys and said very firmly "alright boys, the ONLY place to deal with this is the police station...get IN the car...NOW!" Of course the boys wondered why we had to go to the police station. I told them I've had it and I needed to see how the police would handle this situation and I wasn't sure if they would need to spend a night in jail or not. Robert thought about things for a little while then said "Mommy, how old do you have to be to go to jail?"
The ride was fairly quiet most of the way and the silence was broken only once in a while with a few questions from Robert about whether I was REALLY taking them to the police station. Callum had fallen asleep, unfortunately for Robert who was eagerly trying to apologize to his younger brother for his criminal behaviour!
We arrived at the police station just a few minutes before they closed, so I hurriedly grabbed Callum out of his seat and firmly said "Come Robert, into the police station we go". We were greeted by an officer who sensed my rushed demeanor and with a concerned voice said, "What happened?" I said, "Sir, these two boys have been fighting with their lightsabers and hitting each other. Robert and Callum, GO SIT DOWN OVER THERE." Then I whispered to the officer that I was really here for a police check for myself and he directed me to the next window, where I completed the appropriate form, paid the lady and sat down to wait. Oh my, the wait must have been somewhat terrifying for the boys because I sat with a very serious face and just kept saying "well I just don't know what they'll say or how they will want to handle this one"!!
Police check done and we started toward the door. I purposefully tried to catch the eye of the officer who initially greeted us on our way in and sure enough, he looked our way, stretched his long arm out over the counter and pointed straight at the boys and gave them a small lecture about treating each other with respect and definitely not hitting each other. He took extra care to single out Callum and said "right buddy?" to which Callum replied "yup, and we don't hit back"!!
The ride home was quite a bit different. Robert of course had figured out fairly early on that I was trying to scare them, but he did say "I was a little bit on the cautious side, JUST in case!!"
So cool that the officer played along! Would love to have been there for that. :-)
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