A friend broke the news that he has a second child on the way.

I was like, “Already? Must be the Irish Catholic in you!”

It occurs to me that now his first born has entered ankle-biting school. And maybe some of you have kids. How are you to know your child has a future in programming?

Well I don’t know, but I do have a story.

[The terrible threes after the jump.]

This was told to me by a friend of the family over a decade ago. It was her only memory of me.

The story

I visited your family once, you must have been three. At some point, we were going out get dinner.

“We’re going out. Terry, get dressed,” your dad called.

“No,” you said.

“Terry, get dressed.”

“No!” You crossed your arms and stomped your feet.

“Terry, if you don’t get dressed,” your father said calmly, “you won’t get to eat, because we’re going out.”

Struck by the irrefutability of that logic, you went upstairs.

A few minutes later, you came down. “I’m dressed,” you said to your dad, “and if you were a bug, I’d squash you!”

On the internet…

Nobody can see you code

…naked. 😀