The Power of a Look

A look can be quite effective when you want something. My daughter gives me a "puppy dog" look when she wants something and probably about 75% of the time, it works. My son hasn't discovered the look yet. When he wants something, he whines or screams at the top of his lungs, which is quite effective too. When the trash is nearly overflowing, I can just look at my husband and he knows, the trash needs to go out. The look can work on strangers too. When I'm at a store waiting for someone to come help me, I can stand there looking annoyed and that probably works about 25% of the time. Last week is a wonderful example of the power of a look. It was around 10:00 p.m. The kids were asleep in bed. I was in my nightgown in bed watching TV when all of a sudden, the windows start rattling because our neighbor kid has his dang car stereo turned up. Now, I don't mind loud stereos during the day so much. I've been known on occasion to turn up my radio when a good song comes on the radio. But this was 10:00 at night. I waited a few minutes thinking maybe he would be turning it off soon. Finally, I was ticked. I was worried he was gonna wake up the kids. So I put some pants on and walked to the front door. I first turned on the porch light thinking that maybe if he saw that come on, he might have enough sense to turn the dang thing off. I waited. Still playing. That was it. I opened the door, flung open the screen door, stepped out and gave this kid the "Look". You know the one. The look that says if you don't turn that damn thing off, I'm gonna come over there and turn it off permanently. He was in the process of walking towards his house, with his car stereo still blaring. I must have given him a pretty dang good look because when he saw me, he said, "OK" and ran back to his car and turned it off. I didn't even have to say a single word. I calmly walked back inside shut the door, turned out the light and went to bed. Ahhhhh. The power of a look.