Talking to Children

I was in a restaurant today and overheard a mother talking to her son. She was in her late twenties, wearing a white tank top, and tattoos covering her arms and legs. Her son, an angelic blond three-year-old, picked up the plastic number card the restaurant used to bring food to the table, and began playing with it. I imagined a parent might allow the child to play with it, or calmly order the child to put it down if he was starting to cause trouble. 

The boy, however, was just holding the card and quietly looking at it from both sides. His mother said this as the first thing that came out of her mouth: "You better put that down. That's stealing. They're going to call the cops and you'll go to jail and never see mommy again. Do you want that?"

I though this response from the mother was interesting, and also that the little boy just quietly handed over the card.