A boy and his dog

*This is a post about what not to do.

I took our dog to my brother the other day because we were going out of town. After I had been home for about 3 hours I asked Scott where Charlie was. Scott said he didn't know, he hadn't seen him for a long time and he started looking for him. I'm terrible because sometimes I like to tease my kids - not good. He yelled for him upstairs then opened the back and front doors and yelled for him again. Of course, no Charlie. I asked Scott if it would be so bad if Charlie was gone - forever. He said yes. I didn't think he really cared about the dog, he doesn't really do anything with him. Scott asked me if Charlie had come back in the house after he went out 3 hours earlier. I told him no, because he hadn't. Scott kept looking. He went downstairs and looked everywhere he could think to look. After a few minutes he came back upstairs and started to get his shoes on. He was going to go outside and search. I also noticed he was crying! At that point the teasing was over. I apologized and told him where Charlie was and he started sobbing. WHAT A TERRIBLE MOTHER!!! I should have known how traumatic it is for a child to think their dog was lost, my childhood dog got lost and was never found. It was very traumatic for my younger brother. So, no more teasing - at least not about the important stuff!