The Nice Police Officer - A Life Lesson for a 5 Year Old

Yes, Austin had a little life lesson dealt to him this morning. It was a lesson in crying wolf. For the second time in a week he tried to dial 911. Last week they called back and I was able to explain how our little on had dialed and we didn't have an emergency. Today...not so lucky.

We were getting ready to leave and one of the triplets alerted me to the fact that Austin had called 911. I found a second phone and the line was in use, but I couldn't hear anything. When I finally got Austin to show me where he had hidden the phone he had dialed from I found 911 on the redial list. Crap!

We spent a lot of time and effort talking to him about the last incident. We went through the whole thing about how you only call in a real emergency and went over what constituted a real emergency. So he had fair warning. I told him that if the police arrived he would have to talk to him. I have never seen the color leave his face so fast.

He proceeded to go to the front door to be on the lookout. About 5 minutes later he tore through the living room and hid under the end table. Sure enough, a sqad car was on the street. When the nice officer came to the front door I said, "Officer, could you do me a favor? I need you to explain to my 5 year old what a real emergency is and when he should call 911." He said, "Sure? Where is he?" I said, "Hiding in the living room."

Austin reluctanly came out with big tears streaming down his face. When the officer asked if he had called 911 he said, "No. John did." And then Tyler backed him up. Geez! I said, "He's 3 years old Austin. He doesn't know how to dial 911." He finally fessed up and told the officer that someone had to be really hurt or the house needed to be on fire for him to call 911 again.

The officer was really good. A little to nice, if you ask me. He told him that he was glad he knew how to dial for help in an emergency and wanted him to know that they would come and help him out, but he needed to remember that he shouldn't call unless it was a real emergency.

I'm praying a lesson was learned by all because Tyler was all eyes and ears during this entire exchange! And tonight John was saying, "Austin called 11115555 and the poyice yofficer came and it wasn't an emergency."