Stop That or I'll Take You to the Car Wash!

There is a cry that every parent comes to know. It's different from any other cry. The cry of true and sincere fear is very distinguishable. There have only been two things that have caused our little Max to emit such a cry. Early on and now when caught off guard, the vacuum cleaner has been the suspect. The other is a new suspect; the car wash. We took the jeep through the car wash on two different occasions a few weeks ago and Max freaked out. He is not a fan of a dark enclosed space with a big machine shooting gallons of water and soap at him, followed by the deep roar of a gigantic dryer caressing the car. Today we took the 4-runner through a quick wash. It was confirmed that all the memory functions are working right on cue. The jets hadn't even started up yet and he was already shaking. I felt so bad. After a few short minutes we we're out and the horror of the $4 Express Wash was over.

We drove over to a little boutique to pick up a few mother's day presents, and as we tried to put Max back in his car seat he started throwing a fit (a common occurrence these days). In a very "I'm going to be as collected and firm as a push over Daddy can be" voice, these were the words that came out of my husband's mouth: "You had better stop that or I'm going back to the car wash."

Some people threaten their children with time-out, others with going to their room, and good parents probably don't use threats. Well, the Loveless' have the car wash, and Daddy's not afraid to use it.