38

"We all need boundaries or how will we know how far to push?"

Curtis looked ready to explode. A cranky toddler in his arms, a little boy taunting him as the older one hung off the back of the sofa screaming at his little brother like he was helping or something.

"LAST WARNING!" Curtis roared "Benjamin, if you do not get off the back of that sofa right now I will put you to bed early without letting you watch your Father on the telly!"

Ben looked horrified as he slid to the seat and sat with his hands in his lap, the very thought of missing the show terrible and he looked over at his brother with a glare to let him know it was his fault if they were in trouble.

Penny stood looking at his Poppy with shock as Curtis turned to face him "And as for you Crispin. You pull that face at me again I will remove the permission slip I signed for your trip to the farm tomorrow as well as no Telly!"

Cue another little bum hitting the sofa with hands in lap.

"And as for you young lady …" Curtis lifted her up and kissed her face, holding her tightly as she finally stopped grizzling, silence soothing her.

"you know" Ton said from the doorway where he stood with the apple pie he had been sent over to deliver "You are lucky your Poppy loves you and knows you need to see your Dadda or you would all be in bed already. Tadda still does that if I have a fit!"

Eyes widened as they stared at Ton, almost a Grup and still get bedtimes too?

"I am sorry, I lost my temper for a moment" Curtis sighed as he accepted the pie, the toddler now on her mat chewing a toy, "I don't like being the Grup."

"We need boundaries. Like my chookies and their fence. They like to run to it and lean in it then run away. Like … they are checking it is still there. They are still safe. If there was no fence they would go mad and probably run on the road and get run over. We like to know where the fences are, we like to check they are still there like mad chookies too. We are safe inside them" Ton smiled and Curtis placed the pie down, pulling Ton into his arms.

"You sounded just like Taddy then, so clever"

Ton thought he might die from happiness.

He was like Taddy.