It was the Dinosaur's fault

Danny sat quietly, playing with his brand new dinosaurs that his Bubba bought him.  He really wanted his big sister Shayde to play with him, but she was too busy on Mommy’s tablet.

He thought about when his Mom said, "just have fun anyway, without Shayde, then she will see how much fun you're having then she'll want to play with you."  He crawled under the kitchen table, because it was dark down there and began playing with his dinosaurs.  

Shayde could hear her brother growling and then she remembered Bubba had gotten him new dinosaurs.  She shut off the tablet, jumped off the bed, walked through the living room and into the kitchen. 

“Let’s play a game Danny,” she said excitedly to her little brother

“Ok”, said Danny “Let’s play Dino Land”

“Um, Ok, I wanna be this dinosaur,” announced Shayde as she picked up the green and white polka dotted dinosaur holding a fish.  ‘This is going to be my favourite one,’ she thought to herself.  

As they played Shayde kept taking turns away from Danny and making changes to the game. He didn't want her to leave and stop playing with him but Danny could feel his face was getting hot, and his heart felt like it was going to pump out of his chest.  

Finally he yelled, “Stop that!” he began to cry, “Shaaaaaaayde stop that!”  

  

Shayde continued to make him mad, silently giggling to herself.  Danny didn't know why she was being so mean but he didn't like it and he couldn't take it anymore. The next thing he knew, he'd picked up Shayde's 'favourite' dinosaur and threw at her face.  The hard dinosaur hit Shayde in the head.

She screamed in pain. “MOOOOM!” cried Shayde “MOM! MOM!”

“Oh my God, what is it NOW?” said Mom.  She had been listening to them argue all day and she wasn't sure how much more of it she could take.

Shayde, holding her head, tells her mother, “Mommy I was just sitting there, I wasn't doing nothing and Danny hit me really hard with one of those rock hard dinosaurs and it hit me in the head.”

Maddie looked at Danny, as if to ask him for his side of it.

Danny tries to explain, "Mommy, I honestly don't know why the dinosaur decided to do that?" Danny, with his eyebrows raised, shaking his head, looked up at his mom face, to see if she was buyin' it but it would seem she wasn't.  

"No use," he thought to himself. Danny stuck his head into a pillow and cried, “Mommy I didn't mean to, my brain just took over, I tried to stop but I couldn't Mommy, I tried.”

Maddie questioned him, “You were upset and before you knew it, you had hit and hurt your sister with your toy?”   

Nodding his head, Danny confessed, “I’m such a bad brother, I’m so mean” he cried. 

Shayde could see that Danny felt really bad, she hugged her little brother until they felt a little better.  

When they were done, Maddie looked at Danny and said, “Danny, that little voice or whatever you want to call it, in your head that tells you to do things like that, isn't looking out for you.  He is only thinking of himself and it’s your job to make sure he doesn't get his way. It takes practice, lots and lots of practice.  Ok Danny?  Can you do that?”

Danny sat up quickly to think about it because he knows he’s having a big boy's conversation and replies, “What am I supposed to do when Shayde makes me angry?” 

Maddie, holding back a smile at Danny’s choice of words, asks him, “I’m not sure, sweetie, what do you think are some things you can try?” 

“Hmmm, let me think.” He says slowly and puts his finger to his tempo to show his mom he was thinking, “Can I hit the pillow like I do when you make me mad Mommy? “  

Smiling, “Sure.”

“Can I count 1, 2, 3, 7, 5, 3, um” counting fingers to find his place “16, 10?”  Showing mommy all his fingers.

Still smiling, “They sound like great ideas, Danny whatever you decide to do, please remember, no good comes from breaking other people’s stuff.  And always think about how bad you felt afterwards.  You felt good for a second when you threw it, but then you felt bad for a long long time afterwards.  Right?”

Danny nodded.

After that Danny almost forgot a few times but he didn't break anything again.  Not on purpose anyway.