I played a mean trick on my kid and my grandpa taught me a lesson

This weekend I went to visit my grandparents. They're pretty up there (late 80's, early 90's), so it's more important than ever to spend time with them, but also old people are pretty cool. Plus they always have a gift my daughter, who's now 2 and a half.We didn't get to stay long (it was the last stop on a road trip before heading home), so after lunch and catching up, and showing my daughter the family photos, we packed up and loaded into the car.Except, my daughter didn't want to get in the car, so she plopped down in a chair in the porch. My wife and I were in the car already, and we asked her to come over if she was coming with us, but she was calling our bluff.So we did the classic trick: pretend to drive off.It was like that gif - you know the one - of the kid on their first day of school, where the reporter asks if they miss their mommy, and they go from smiling smugly to bawling over a few seconds. As we slooooowly inched away in the car, my daughter went from a coy smile to all out crying, running after us, face red, yelling that she wants to stay with us.It was mean. It's nice to know you're loved, and I would've preferred she got in the car when we asked, but she was extremely distraught. She was just not prepared to see her parents go away like that. There was terror in her eyes.And my grandpa stopped us, and said, "See how she is? Think about those kids who've been separated from their parents at the border."And let me tell you, as terrified as my kid was of my leaving them, and I cannot tell you how scared I'd be if she was taken from me. It really is just the scariest thing I can think of.TL;DR: I scared my toddler by pretending to leave them behind, and my grandpa turned it around on me by pointing out that there are toddlers who have been separated from their parents for real, in our country, by our government, and it low-key freaked me out. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2Bw7Ayv