The Boy’s World- Shattered

With age comes responsibility and, sometimes, privilege.

The lass learned that today. In our home state, there is no law specifying exactly when a child may ride in the front seat. Both of our kids are above average in height and weight, so they’ve been out of booster seats from the earliest that could happen. But we age limited them for riding in the front seat. Prior to today, only the boy was deemed old enough to ride in the front seat for rides around town and the like.

Actually, that last statement isn’t entirely true. The lass was deemed old enough at her most recent birthday. But it wasn’t until today that I took a moment to make her aware of the new privilege.

Thus ended the boy’s nearly 2-year, uncontested reign as the only qualified proprietor of the car’s shotgun position. Well, aside from the Wife or myself that is. All things considered, he took it like I expected him to- about the same as if I’d told him we’d be removing one of his arms.

Time wise, his world ended about 5:05PM EST. His martial arts lesson had just concluded and we were headed out to the car. The lass did exactly what I expected her to do- she made sure to be the first one to the car. The boy was still unawares as to the change in the family power structure so was completely unsuspecting of what she was doing, but not for much longer.

I had barely unlocked and opened the car door on my side and the lass was already in the passenger seat. The boy was temporarily taken aback at her seeming brazenness. He tried to tell her she wasn’t allowed in the passenger seat. I had to step in and correct and remind him. He still didn’t want to believe it and tried to argue with me that he had to wait much longer than his sister had and it wasn’t fair. I was temporarily sucked into the argument, then caught myself. Defeated, he huffily climbed into the back seat.

The boy had come to view the passenger seat as his privilege as opposed to a privilege. He even stated that because he was older he should be allowed to sit there. I mainly opted to allow him to vent his frustrations, rather than arguing or trying to impart some kind of understanding. I knew from experience he wouldn’t listen anyway.

I’m fully aware of the headaches that await me- the contests and races to come to be the first to the car. The whining and crying from the “loser” of those races. The sneaky, underhanded doings to claim the throne- like one of them going out to the car 15 minutes ahead of time to claim the seat (my money is on the lass pulling this one first). Then they’ll learn the “shotgun” game and that will breed arguments about how long before the ride “shotgun” can be claimed ; how long it remains in effect afterward; whether it has to be called again if we get out of the car.

They also get a chance to learn that a privilege can be revoked, temporarily or permanently. The ride into school tomorrow should be interesting.