I’m hoping to give you reasons over time.”

He wrote something in his notebook.

I didn’t ask what.

Wyatt, meanwhile, tested every boundary he could find.

He told me he was allowed three cookies before dinner, then four, then six.

When Lauren gently corrected him, he looked at me to see whose side I would take.

I wanted to be the generous father, the one who said yes and was loved for it.

Instead I said, “Your mom knows the rule.