11. 2012 年 – 迪士尼乐园
l 人物 – 当 迦勒 大约 5 岁时。诺亚大约两岁。
l 事件 – 在弥迦出生之前，雪莉 和我决定全家去迪士尼乐园度假。迦勒对此感到非常兴奋。但由于会有很多步行时间，我们决定为诺亚带一辆婴儿车，因为他当时大约 2 岁。我们提前告诉迦勒，我们只为诺亚带一辆婴儿车，这意味着他需要走路。当我们把车停在停车场后，我们开始走向入口。这时，诺亚也能走路，所以当诺亚走路时，迦勒坐在婴儿车里。走了一会儿后，诺亚累了，想坐婴儿车，但迦勒不愿意出来。基本上，这时诺亚和迦勒在争夺婴儿车。这不是开始我们在迪士尼乐园第一天的好方式。我们甚至还没有进入公园。我让全家人停下来，把迦勒拉到一边，和他进行了一次谈话。我说：「迦勒，我们已经谈过婴儿车是给你弟弟的。诺亚有优先使用婴儿车的权利。我不希望有任何关于婴儿车的争吵，我不希望你有任何关于婴儿车的抱怨和哭闹。我会给你三次机会，三次警告，第四次，我们会离开迪士尼乐园回家，不仅是回我们租的房子，而是直接回家。请服从我，不要在这一点上测试我。」当然，迦勒需要两次警告。在两次警告后，我严厉地警告他，他还剩下一次机会，之后我们就会回家。迦勒说了这样的话：「爸爸，我不相信你会浪费几百美元回家。」那时，我想我们买了四个人的三天门票。迦勒说完后，我直视他的眼睛，告诉他：「让你学到这个教训，价值超过几千美元。儿子，请不要测试我。」迦勒知道我是认真的，之后就再也没有婴儿车的问题了。虽然这次上帝对我们家很仁慈，我没有必要执行后果，但肯定有其他类似的事件，我们会这样做以确保孩子们学会服从的教训。例如，我记得我们在四季酒店有一个母亲节早午餐，那是一个有很多美食的自助早餐。迦勒很喜欢那些食物，但他行为不端，我要求他冷静下来，表现好，给了他几次警告，当他反复不服从时，我带他回家，而他在车上大发脾气。
11. 2012 – Disneyland
a. Who – when Caleb was about 5 years old. Noah is about 2 years old.
b. What – Before Micah was born, Shirley and I decided to take a family vacation to Disneyland. Caleb was super excited to go. Since there will be a lot of walking, we decided to have one stroller for Noah since he was around 2 years old. We told Caleb ahead of time that we are only brining one stroller for Noah, which means that he will need to walk. Once we parked our car in the parking garage, we started walking towards the entrance. At this point, Noah can walk as well, so when Noah was walking, Caleb was sitting in the stroller. After walking a bit, Noah was tired and wanted to sit in the stroller, Caleb would not get out of the stroller. Essentially, at this point, Noah and Caleb were fighting over the stroller. This is not a good beginning to start our first day at Disneyland. We have not even entered the park yet. I stopped the whole family, took Caleb aside, and had a conversation with him. I said: “Caleb, we talked about that the stroller is for your brother. Noah has the priority for the stroller. I don’t want any fighting over the stroller, I don’t want any complaining and whining from you regarding the stroller. I am going to give you three chances, three warnings, on the fourth, we will leave Disneyland and go home, not just to our VRBO home but all the way home. Please obey me and don’t test me on this.” Of course, Caleb required two warnings. After two warnings, I sternly warned him that he has one more chance, then after that, we will go home. Caleb made the following comment: “Dad, I don’t believe that you would waste hundreds of dollars to go home.” At that point, I think we bought 3 days’ worth of tickets for 4 people. After Caleb said that, I looked at him straight in the eye and told Caleb: “It would be worth more than thousands of dollars for you to learn this lesson. Son, please don’t test me.” Caleb knew I was serious, and after that, there was no more issue with the stroller. Although God was gracious this time to our family so that I did not have to execute the consequence, there was definitely other incidents like this where we would do something like this to make sure that kids learned the lesson of obedience. For example, I remember we had a Mother’s Day brunch at the four seasons, it was a breakfast buffet with lots of great food. Caleb loved the food but was acting up, I asked him to calm down, to behave, gave him a couple warnings, when he didn’t obey repeatedly, I took him home while he threw a big tantrum in the car.