What To Do?

Over the last week or so, Michal, aged five, has started exhibiting a very worrying tendency - she crosses roads without bothering to look whether or not a car is approaching.

Today, once again, I had to grab her out of the path of a car. Last Friday night, a friend did the same – in the nick of a time, because she was seconds away from certain death and I am at my wits end, thinking about how to get her to realise what she’s doing. Road safety does not seem to play a part in her life whatsoever.

I tried a different tact today. Having administered the usual disciplinary measures, I took her home from Synagogue and whilst standing in the kitchen, took a cherry tomato out of the refrigerator. I placed it on the counter and told her that “she was the tomato.” I then took a piece of wood and told her that “this was the car.”

I slammed the wood onto the tomato. She burst out crying (probably due to the shock of it all) and looked visibly shaken. We both looked at the grisly remains of the splattered tomato and I told her that this is what she would look like if a car ran into her. I then got her to pick up the remains and bin them (just to ensure that she got the full impact of the experiment). I don’t know if this action has psychologically damaged her for the next twenty years, but to be honest, I’d rather that, than G-d forbid lose her to a motorist.

When we went out later, she held my hand as we crossed the road and even looked right and left. We shall see whether my tomato experiment yields results or whether I shall have to devise another plan.