A couple of weeks ago, on our way home from the afternoon pick-up rounds, I looked in my rearview mirror and was horrified to see Stella’s face looking straight at me. She was, literally, standing up in her carseat. I was pretty well aware of the fact that she could buckle herself in and out on her own. It was not at all uncommon for her to close the door and insist that I let her do it herself. However, I thought I had made it clear that this was an only-when-the-car-isn’t-moving type activity.

Not wanting this to become yet another power struggle with her, I had to make a split second decision as to how I could impress upon her the heinous things that might befall her should she ever attempt this again. I immediately pulled the car over, turned it off, spun around and with my most controlled, bad-ass mom voice I could muster, told her to Sit. Down. NOW. I then, in an equally don’t-mess-with-me-on-this-one tone, told her to never unbuckle her seatbelt again while the car is moving. It is a rare occasion that she does anything the first time I ask. This, however, was such an occassion. And let me tell you, it made me heady with maternal power.

As she buckled herself in and explained to me, “but I coudln’t reach my book!,” I told her that not only was it my rule that she wear her seatbelt, but that it was a law, and that the police would pull us over and give us a ticket if they saw her not wearing it. I refrained from giving her a screening of Highway, Bloody Highway, but did impress upon her the bodily injury that may befall her if she chose to defy my orders. As has happened many times in our discussions over the last three years, I found myself once again reasoning with her using a concept that had absolutely NO meaning to her. I thought I was being so wise by trying to play the “Police” card, not realizing that the concept of police hasn’t yet had an opportunity to be played out. Until today.

As we were driving to school this morning we came upon a highway patrolman detouring traffic around a car that had, apparently, driven off the road. There was a man’s hat laying in the middle of the street, and the whole thing had ‘suspicious activity’ written all over it. As we made our way around the scene, and headed towards school, we came upon three police cars with doors open lights on and a man on his knees, cuffed in the middle of it all. As we were slowly detoured around the whole thing, Stella watched intently from the back seat. Then, in a quiet and ominous voice she said, “Mommy, I don’t think he was wearing his seatbelt.”

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Update: Apparently, it was a bit more than just a seatbelt infraction.
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