The Police and the Halloweenie

It is Halloween, and its going much as I suspected it would. Tiernan doesn’t want to put on his costume, and he is being a real brat about it. Carrying on, throwing fits and tantrums. And my wife, who took the day off from work for the festivities finally, pulls out one of the old tricks in the Parent Trick Bag. She says, “If you are not a good boy, the police are going to come and arrest you!!”
Have I mentioned somewhere in this blogsphere, that Tiernan loves “COPS”, not necessary actual police officers, but the show COPS. From the time Tiernan was 24 months old, we let him watch COPS. Now, some might call it a lapse of judgement, but we prefer to call an early Actions-Have-Consequences and Bad People Go to Jail/ Lesson. For more on the COPS thing, check out an earlier blog on the subject.
The policeman’s coming threat works every time. Every parent has used “the Police will come and get you” line. And if you haven’t you should consider it, because A.) it works and B.) it instills a healthy respect for the boys in blue and C.) it works every time. I have seen Moms at the mall use it and all the other parents look around and give each other a knowing grin. Some even join in the lie, “Say, do I hear sirens?”
So, we’ve finally, got everybody’s Halloween costume on. Tiernan, a handsome and brave Sir Knight complete with helmet and sword and Reagan, a green and purple Dragon complete with wings. Nobody ever mentioned to Tiernan that knights slay dragons. And if they did, we never told him what slaying means.
Everybody is dressed and everybody looks cute. As we walk out the door, one of the town’s police cars is driving by the house. The officer sees the two kids in costume and backs up and pulls in front of the house. Tiernan sees the cop car stopping and the policeman getting out and coming toward the house. The boy freaks out in a total full-on state of toddler hysteria, tears, read face, shaking, stomping of feet. “No, Mommy, No, I’ll be good.” My wife and I, start reassuring Tiernan that its OK and he’s a good boy. The poor cop, who is the local DARE, anti-drug officer just wants to do some community relations and give the cute kids some candy on Halloween doesn’t know what to do. He’s thinking, “What the heck did I do? Do I keep going or get back in the car and drive away?”
Eventually, everything is settled down and the brave sir knight and the dragon made their rounds and collected a whole bunch of candy which was then passed up the line to me in tribute for my benevolent Kingship. When it comes to Halloween candy, we all must tithe to the boss. It is good to be the king, even if it makes me a Halloweenie.