‘But, seriously’... maybe we just don’t deserve nice things

Last week, I had an argument with my daughter. She wanted to ride her trike in the driveway, and I wouldn’t let her.

Now, I wasn’t being mean or deliberately trying to dash her bike-riding dreams, but I was teaching her about consequences for bad behaviour.

In the moments leading up to that battle – in which there were tears ... mostly hers – she simply refused to listen to me. She was outright defiant. Everything was “no”, and when she wasn’t using that dreaded two-letter word she had started saying “I don’t want to” repeatedly...