How to Train your Dragon
Like the heralds of old mounting the cry that a dragon is outside the castle gates, the shout is raised. “He’s coming, man the defenses!”
The battlements are prepared, the gate is slammed shut and barred, and those inside oscillate between feelings of smug confidence in their security, and nervous fears that he’ll get through — again.
Bang! The first charge against the gate rattles the entire fortress. The first attempt at entry is a brute force bash into the barred door. It’s unsuccessful. The knights and warriors inside brace themselves for more. But like the dragons of old, the attacker vying to gain entry knows subtly and cunning are often the best craft to gain him entry.
Those inside begin to fidget. There has been no second attempt and no sounds outside their hold. Has he gone away?
A brave knight approaches the door. He slowly opens it and peers into the darkness without. The passage is empty. With the threat passed, he relaxes and the surroundings lose some of the imagery his mind had perhaps exaggerated. The passage is just the hallway outside his room. The barred gate is the door to the bedroom he shares with, alas, not knights but his two pre-teen brothers.
Although not a dragon, the attacker is as wiley as one. Now that their guard is down and the door is open, their 3-year-old brother makes his move. He bursts out of the bedroom next door and runs into his older brothers’ room laughing triumphantly. The speed of his destruction is breathtaking.
Lego castles crumble under his feet, model cars are twisted into unrecognizable heaps, and clothes are pulled from drawers and flung about the room in a colorful whirling tornado of textile chaos.
By the time the stunned brothers’ cry has been raised, the 3-year-old has escaped to wreak havoc elsewhere.
The boys have appealed to me for help like I’m Merlin and can work some magic to conquer the dragon. But a magician I am not. For a time, a toddler door handle cover on their doorknob worked like a protective charm. But he can break through those now. Hiding the breakable things in the room (Lego creations, model cars, etc) is a hit-or-miss solution. Plus, he seems to take finding the really good stuff to ruin as a challenge.
It’s a difficult situation with really no solution. The little brothers have always wanted to get into their big brothers’ stuff, and the 3-year-old is no different. He doesn’t always perform a dragon-like ransacking, but he knows if he’s patient and quiet enough there will be ample opportunity to sneak in and play with things he shouldn’t.
At some point the tide will turn and he’ll either better understand and follow the admonishments not to go into the room, or outgrow the desire to. Or the brothers will finally mount a strong enough defense (which will probably be a problem of its own).
For now, I predict continued incursions by the dragon. And many more appeals to Merlin.