Imagine being busy parents with three young children. Would you be surprised if your kids followed your instructions exactly as you said them, or would you be pleased?

The parents in this story learned the hard way that they have to be careful what they say around their children because they just might do it!

Let’s find out what happened.

So the neighbor had a Moose

Background:

I grew up in a bedroom community halfway between Cowtown and Big D.

When we moved in, the population was around 3-4 thousand. This was not out in the country at all and the houses were fairly close to each other… at least by Texas Standards.

My Parents had three young boys, all under the age of 7 and while Dad worked a normal day shift, Mom worked nights and slept most of the day, leaving us boys pretty much to ourselves and whatever fun we could come up with, be it water fights with the garden hose or catching cicadas in the maple trees.

I wonder what his dad was ranting about?

Story:

As I said, Dad worked a normal day job, but liked to go to the lake for the weekends, which meant he had to hustle home from work and get the grass cut before the sun went down.

The lot wasn’t terribly large, but back in those days, there were no self-propelled mowers and this was St. Augustine grass in the summer time… in other words, it was hearty and grew pretty fast.

One week he came home and started cutting the grass as usual, but about 10 minutes into the job, he came storming into the housing swearing like a sailor.

He didn’t want to talk about it, but just ranted for about half an hour and then proceeded to finish cutting he grass without further incident.

Dinner started out with typical dinner conversation.

Just as it was beginning to get dark, Mom called us to dinner.

We all washed up, Mom was a stickler for such things, and gathered at the dinner table.

During the course of our evening meal, Mom asked us boys what we had been doing during the day… whatever it was, it probably involved rocks or frogs or Tonka trucks.

Next, Mom asked Dad how his day was… and he told her… boring adult stuff, yada yada.

Now, we get to the really interesting part of the Dad’s day!

Next, she asked him what in the world happened that caused his earlier blowup.

He proceeds to tell her that one of our Neighbors, an elderly woman who pretty much kept to herself, was the owner of a standard poodle named Moose. This dog was enormous, even by Texas Standards, and was able to leap her 5 foot chain link fence without breaking a sweat.

Apparently, Moose had been making “deposits” in the front yard the size of dinner plates, and because the grass was growing tall so quickly, had been completely hidden.

Of course when Dad was mowing the grass, he hit more than a few of these Moose land mines with the lawnmower, spraying the front of the house and both cars in the driveway.

I can just imagine what these boys are thinking!

It shouldn’t take a genius to understand why he was so angry, but of course his boys… yes, we all thought it was hysterically funny.

Dad said, “The next time we find Moose droppings in the front yard, I want a deposit made on that Neighbors doorstep.”

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Mom knew something was up.

A few days later, Mom wakes up from her afternoon nap and hears water running, so being the Mother if 3 boys, she decided to investigate.

She stuck her head out of the back patio door and called out, “Boys! Why is the water running?”, to which we replied, “We’re just washing the dustpan Mom!”.

Half sleep, she said, “Okay, thank you”, shook her head and headed back to bed.

The boys explained exactly what they did.

At dinner that night, the usual questions were asked… just like any “normal” evening… but she went on and asked, “Boys, why were ya’ll washing the dustpan?”.

We looked at each other, shrugged and as the oldest, I said, “Well, Dad told us the next time we found Moose deposits in the front yard, we were supposed to take it over the the Neighbor’s and leave it on her doorstep, so we did. We just had to wash the dustpan, so we didn’t get in trouble for bringing droppings into the house.”

You could have heard a pin drop as both Parents just sat there, staring at us… whether in shock or their brains having to reboot after a fatal exception… I don’t know.

Then they both busted out laughing, not only at our brazenness… but that we followed Dad’s instructions to the letter.

Here’s how the story ended…

You could say that was a turning point for them both.

From that point forward, they were MUCH more careful about what they said, and how they said it.

Epilogue:

The very next day, Moose moved to the country, away from nearby neighbors, who would NOT object to Moose deposits.

I’m glad they didn’t get in trouble. They did do exactly what their parents told them to do, but I doubt that the neighbors found it as hilarious!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One dad can relate to this story as a parent and a child.

I did too, but I’m glad they didn’t.

Here’s a story about working with dogs.

I hope not! I hope he really did go to the country.

Kids only seem to obey when you don’t want them to!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.