Three of my kids take piano lessons from the same teacher, so they take turns going first. They determined the order themselves several months ago. I thought it was all settled. It shouldn’t be difficult to maintain who goes first, second and third, right?

At the start of a recent lesson, they argued.

“You go first.”

“I went first last week.”

“No, you didn’t!”

“Yes, I did!”

The conflict escalated and intensified with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. It got so bad, the teacher had to call me in—I couldn’t believe I was refereeing a shouting match over who goes first for piano lessons! I resolved to end things abruptly by assigning an order.

“Okay,” I began, pointing to them one-at-a-time. “You go. Then you. Then you. That’s it. No questions asked.” I started to go, then stopped and grumbled, “We’ll talk about this later.”

I climbed into the car gnashing my own teeth…

(Please visit HighCallingBlogs to read whether The Lecture that I launched delivered healthy correction or harsh criticism…)

Photo by HCB-network member nAncY of Just Say the Word.

“Hammers on Black.” Just Say the Word. 7 January 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. <http://justsaytheword.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/1929/>.

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