Why It's Good to Have a Glass of Wine Before Putting the Young-uns to Bed

Bedtime rituals are great fun. Parents and children appreciate time together--sometimes the only chance you have during the day to have a conversation with them. These are happy days in a man's life. Hell, you make your child happy merely by reading another book (when they are 16, I'll have to invest thousands of dollars in a car to get the same smile).

I tried to remind myself of that after last night.

I was reading to Daniel in the tight confines of his upper bunk. I get a little claustro up there at times and kids have absolutely no sense of personal space. The boy picked a goobery booger out of his nose while I was explaining how The Mystery Treehouse couldn't really go back to dinosaur time. He and I looked at the offending semi-hard mucus. We had a problem on our hands--to get back out of the bed requires a lot of effort and reshuffling and delays (because kids out of bed at bedtime find anything to do except come directly back). No problem, "wipe it on your pj's--we'll wash 'em soon."

I just didn't want him to eat the thing.

He looks at me, then at the booger and, quick as a magician, wiped that booger on my lips. I was stunned, and quietly started to boil, but the blood pressure came down quickly thanks to nature's great elixer. I wiped my mouth on his pj's and asked that "he never do that again." From the look in his eyes, I'm not sure he won't.