Doug Kanter wrote:


Sounds better the more I think about it.

About 6 years ago, my son hit me in the cohones with a hardball during
pitching practice and I ripped him a new asshole, as was appropriate. He
learned some new words that day. I felt terrible, though, and a few days
later, I was discussing it with some friends over beer. My friend Mike made
an interesting observation based on his experiences in his enormous extended
family. When things get bad with a kid, mothers will *usually* ramp up the
response slowly, from calmly correcting the kid, through various levels, and
finally blowing up. Fathers usually go from calm to "holy ****" much faster.
I think this is true, and it's not a problem. Kids should know that in a
previous life, their fathers were cave men, and might react in "interesting"
ways. Not violent toward the kids, but interesting.

I think my son learned well. Three years ago, we were at a boat launch in
the Adirondacks. The boat was out of the water, I was securing things, and
he was mindlessly staring at the sky or some chick in a bikini, when I saw
two pit bulls running toward him. The gun was out of the holster instantly,
I yelled to the owner to stop the dogs, and he did. If those dogs had come
within 20 feet of my son, they would've been dropped, followed closely by
their owner sucking on the barrel until the police arrived. My son flipped
out at the idea that I was ready to kill the dogs. But, as I explained,
there was no other possible option, other than wait and see if they were
vicious. It took him a couple of days to see the logic, but he finally did.


You were packin' a gun in it's holster at a boat launch?
Up here that would cause some commotion!