Of Wise Men, Fools, and Cannons

A tradition in our family is for the children to receive one last gift on the Feast of Epiphany. Saturday evening, Lil' Wingnut expressed his desire for a cannon on Epiphany. We basically ignored his request. The morning of Epiphany, he once again expressed his hope for a cannon, to which I responded, "I didn't get you a cannon. You only asked for one last night, and I had already done the Epiphany shopping. I did pick something really cool for you though."

For another 15 minutes or so, the lil' guy moped around the house, moaning and groaning about his cannon. "You probably got swords or guns or something. Whatever!"

Having had enough of his nonsense, I finally told the boy, "You're too young for a cannon. You need to be 12 to own a cannon."

"Really? Why do I have to be 12?"

"It's against the law for little boys to own cannons. 12 year olds are much more responsible than 4 year olds."

Believe it or not, this seemed to appease him. He then began asking if his older siblings were old enough for cannons, to which I responded they were, but they hadn't asked for cannons.

He seems pretty placated about the cannon now. I was feeling triumphant in my ability to outsmart the boy, although I do feel like a bad mom for lying. Of course, Wingnut pointed out how I'm a bad mother for having been outsmarted by the lil' guy once again. He would have just told him, "A cannon? No, you can't have one of those."
Duh!