His protest was both heard, and quickly acted upon. Another day it was I who was yelling and driving Emily to school, being the keeper of the clock, when she suddenly silenced me with her quite adult tone from the back seat. You just go in and either the parent walks the kid to class or the kid goes in by themselves. She' s right. What's the hurry, I think.
Life goes on.
Emily cannot always be so articulate. Often she just grunts, or silently fumes, and it is then so easy for us parents to take this as stonewalling, as distracted confusion, rather than as the quasi-civil disobedience that it is. Just because she cannot always explain herself does not mean that she lacks a good reason for her actions. As a parent it is my job to give her the benefit of the doubt, to create the calm space in which she might be able to explain herself. When I remember.