When you have a young family, sometimes a lesson to be learnt trumps fun times together.

It’s a lovely Autumn day and we thought going to the park would be fun for all of us. That is until Jackson decided he was going to bring his cars, about 50 of them, in a box, that they didn’t fit into.

At that moment I saw the opportunity for a lesson in taking responsibility for your things and kissed goodbye to fun in the park.

We explained what we were planning to do – we’ll be walking a lot. Gave him clarity on the help we would give in carrying his cars – none. Suggested an alternative – don’t take the whole box, just take one or two that will be easy to carry. Reminded him that his cars were his responsibility – not ours.

We went through this three times before arriving at the park and still he wanted to bring them.

Within two minutes of walking Jackson had had enough carrying his cars. His arms were aching, they were too heavy, he didn’t want to carry them anymore.

For 20 minutes Jackson sat on the floor and screamed, you may have heard him? Groups of people stopped and stared, other parents either judged or sympathised, older people attempted to make him smile, yeah right.

It’s so hard, so humbling, so upsetting, so necessary.

Jackson carried his cars back to the car. He took responsibility for his cars. He followed through on his decision.

Lesson learnt… I hope.