My wife “Darla” has blown something innocuous completely out of proportion and may have cost our 6-year-old son “Jacob” a good friend. Now she’s concerned he’s exhibiting some sort of proto-serial killer behavior.
Yesterday, Darla found Jacob in the backyard with a pile of garden snails he had collected and was smashing one by one with a rock. She made him stop and asked him why he thought it was okay to engage in “killing animals.” Jacob replied that this was something he and his friend “Jason” do all the time. Darla called Jason’s mother to ask her if she was aware that her son had taught Jacob “to be an animal murderer.” When Jason’s mother learned what my wife meant by that, she literally laughed out loud (Darla had her on speaker phone) and told her that she’d had her going for a minute. Darla retorted that Jason was a “bad influence” on Jacob and ended the call.
She has since taken away Jacob’s screen privileges for the rest of the week as punishment. My attempts at reasoning with her have been met alternately with anger and dismissal. And when, in an effort to make her see my point of view, I told to her that my sister and I used to do the exact same thing when we were Jacob’s age, she replied that “it’s no wonder” I am not “treating this with the seriousness it deserves.” When I asked Darla if she would consider apologizing to Jason’s mother so the boys can still play together, she blew up at me. She said that “killing animals is a sign a child will grow up to be a serial killer.”
Jacob has been friends with Jason since preschool. I think it would be terrible if their friendship were to end over nonsense like this. Darla is a member of PETA, but I really think this is going too far. Can you give me some advice for getting her to come to her senses? She is even considering sending Jacob to a therapist “for evaluation”!
