Any dad will tell you that kids mean drama. And by "drama", I’m talking about over the top no holds barred bad acting. The kind that I’m told you see on soap operas from time to time.

Let me give you an example.

A few months ago, N (who is now about 15 months old) decided that he wanted to go play outside. He did his normal thing (walk to the sliding glass door, point, and say "play!") but didn’t get the response he was looking for. This was primarily because it was raining.

He looked back at the door and decided to try something new. He started to cry. He even collapsed to the floor (one of those slow, safe collapses), and laid down on his belly, crying his little eyes out. Real tears, too.

J was in the kitchen and I was in the den. We looked at each other, sort of shrugged, and then went back to what we were doing. I freely admit that in my case it was reading a book.

After a little while of crying, N sniffled and stood up. He walked over to the den, looked over at me (to make sure I could see him), and then started crying again. It was a real good cry, too, with what has become his trademark move: a slow collapse to the floor. That’ll really get you, by the way. It’s like he’s so upset, he just can’t manage to stand any more. His older brother has since adopted it as well.

I did what any good parent would do. I said "Sorry, we can’t go outside now." and got up and left.

This was not what the little guy was looking for, so he took his act to his momma. She lifted him up (glaring at me) and put him in his eat seat for dinner. She let me know that I was supposed to entertain him until dinner was ready.

What else could I do? I started to cry. Real tears too. It was so upsetting I just couldn’t stand. I had to collapse (nice and slowly to avoid bruising) into a chair.

Turns out the tears thing isn’t such a bad idea: it certainly made N laugh.