Can I throw you out the window?

When we were growing up, our parents all told us their wise words of wisdom gleaned from their hard learned life lessons. We'd all listen politely, sort of, then basically write them off because, as everyone knows, you cannot learn from someone else's mistakes.

Wrong.

Friends of ours had twin boys. When this happened, they were probably 7 or 8 years old. They were having the age old debate over "Can" vs "May" in their house as most parents do at some point or other. One of the boys ran in to his father and said, "Dad, can I (do whatever it was he wanted to do inserted here)?", his father's response was a very calm, "Can I throw you out the window?"

His son looked at him in horror and said, "NO!", to which his father said, "WRONG!", and unceremoniously picked him up and bodily deposited him out the window to the ground below (the room was partially below ground so he only let the boy drop about 3 feet, so don't panic here). The kid came STORMING back into the house, red faced and furious, yelling the whole, "You can't do that to me!" thing, and his father calmly said, "Let's try this again. Go ahead and ask me your question".

Once again, the boy asks, "Can I (insert whatever he wanted here)?". His father responded, "Can I throw you out the window?" The boy said, "NO!!!" The father said, "WRONG!!!", and promptly dumped him out the window yet again. Now, this scenario played out three or four more times. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Finally, totally defeated, the son comes back in, and his father tells him to try this again. So he says to his father in a weary voice, "Can I (insert it one more time for posterity)?". His father says yet again, "Can I throw you out the window?", and in total exasperation the son says, "YES, Dad!! YES, You CAN throw me out the window!!! You've done it (some exaggerated number) times already!!!" With a smirk, his father then says "MAY I throw you out the window?"

The light finally dawning on the boy, his jaw drops open and he just stares at his father and he utters a stern "NO!! NO you may NOT throw me out the window!!" Smiling, the father said, "Well now, I think you've FINALLY learned the difference between "CAN" and "MAY". We won't be having an issue with that again, will we?" And they did not. The boy is grown and off to college now without ever having to be thrown out of another window, to my knowledge.

I told my boys that story when they were roughly 4 and 5 and we were having that same, exact Can/May issue. They thought it was really funny at first. Especially the "throwing you out the window" part. However, for about 3 months when they'd start out a question with "Can I?", all WonderHubby or I would have to do is say, "Can I throw you out the window?", and they instantly converted the question to "May I?" After about 3 months they didn't ask "Can I?" questions anymore. That's the only example I actually know of where someone truly learned from someone else's mistake.

Well, that, and it's about an 8 foot drop to the ground from our windows. *g*