When Play Meets Real LIfe
Benjamin (7 years old) had a car that had competed in the AWANA 2000 Pine car derby. He and Stephen (3 years old) have enjoyed playing with the car from time to time since then. The other day, Stephen played with the car a little too hard and broke one of the wheels off. When Benjamin found it, he had the predictable initial reaction, “Hey, Stephen broke my car!” Being the pragmatist that he is (we’ve always been amazed at Benjamin’s resilience and ability to find the silver lining among the dark clouds) he held up the car and said “dad, look, I'll just pretend it’s a Ford Explorer!” Whereupon he began playing with the car on the dining room table and demonstrating how it has a blowout and the wheel goes flying off. A true story submitted by a real dad: Paul
Originally published November 14, 2002.
