To understand this story you first have to know some things. One, my mom is an only child. Two, my dad is the oldest of four children. Three, I’m the youngest of three (all boys). And four, my dad was on the road a lot when my brothers and I were kids, meaning my mom had to sometimes do some heavy lifting parenting on her own.

Okay.

One night when my dad was home and my mom was at a meeting, I got into it with my brother, Steve, who was in the process of dragging me up the stairs. Now if my mom was home, I’m pretty sure she would have handled it differently than my dad. He heard the commotion, came out of his office, noticed my new pair of glasses, and said, “Don’t break his glasses.”

There is wisdom in there somewhere.