Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Pointless Anecdote (Sort of Funny)

On a hot summer day, some kids might think of setting up a lemonade stand in front of their house to earn a few extra quarters. Today, DS6, who has been absorbing my old collection of Peanuts cartoon books, carries a chair and a wooden box to the end of the driveway, and tapes up a sign that says "Psychiatric Help 5 Cents." He pins up another sign that says "The Doctor is in," and waits for customers. I couldn't say whether this is a sign of giftedness, and it certainly has not helped our reputation in the neighborhood, but it made my day.

In the end, he actually bestowed some decent advice - once his fee had been met - to my wife, me, and our neighbors. ('How do I stop siblings from quarreling?' 'Take them to the playground more; if they have more friends they might not fight as much.' 'How do I stop the squirrels from eating my bird food?' 'Have you tried putting up a squirrel feeder?')

I love it!!!!!!

Ask him how I can get jr to sleep through the night.

Hey, the kid is pretty good!

I'm loving it! Thanks for sharing. It's a great story.

YEs that is one for the record books!

I love it also. My son loves to act out the scences from the cartoons. In Charlie Brown Christmas, remember the line,"Pantaphobia, the fear of everything." Charlie says, that's it! You have to love peanuts.

Oh, I hope you got that one on video.....priceless!

LOL! That is adorable!

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing.

Austin, your son's common-sense advice reminds me of another silly story that happened ~15 years ago.

I was living overseas and the driver of a double-decker bus had attempted to go through a stone arch that was just a little bit too low. The bus got wedged in the arch and although it wasn't severely damaged, it was good and stuck.

The passengers got off and time passed. Many Wise Officials from the bus company and the city came and stared at the bus. They rubbed their chins, walked around the bus, climbed onto the roof, and stared and stared at the points where it was wedged. How do we get it out?

It was wedged too tightly to simply put it in reverse and drive out. The arch was very old and made with Very Large Stones and dismantling it was out of the question. Cutting the roof away would be time-consuming and, of course, would do serious damage to the bus.

Meanwhile, rush hour was coming, and the bus was blocking an important road. What to do? What to do? The Wise Officials rubbed their chins some more and thought and thought and thought about the problem.

Then the neighbor of a friend passed by, out for a stroll with his five-year-old daughter. He told her what had happened. She looked at the scene and said, loud enough for the Wise Officials to hear, "Daddy, why can't they just let the air out of the tires?"

Needless to say, the bus was freed immediately and the red-faced officials went home feeling very foolish indeed.

Val