(During her bath this morning, Sera was succeeding in emptying the the tub onto the bathroom floor with her energetic splashing and kicking. I yelled at her to stop only when the previous two normal-voice requests were ignored. Sera brought up the incident during an afternoon snack few hours later.)
Sera: "Dad, you need to stop yelling at me."
Me: "You mean like I did during your bath this morning?"
Sera: "Yeah."
Me: "I'll make a deal with you. I promise to stop yelling, if you promise to listen to me when I ask you to do something."
Sera: "OK.... But Dad? I couldn't hear you asking over all that noise from splashing!"
(Perry Mason moment: If you couldn't hear me, how did you know that I was asking you to stop? Ha! The prosecution rests!)
Though inspired, Sera's defense is similar to somebody explaining to a cop, "But officer, how do expect me to see a speed limit sign when I'm going that fast?
