What Emmett Would Do

At the end of a busy day, including a great time at Aunt Mary's to celebrate Mom-Mom's real 75th birthday, only Emmett was awake for story time. We read him the great Dr. Seuss book, The Cat In The Hat. Those who haven't read this book since they were a kid probably don't remember, or perhaps didn't even realize then, that the Doctor was asking some pretty deep questions of children. Essentially the story is about an intruder, The Cat, coming into the children's house uninvited while their mother is out. The children are half delighted and half scared by the sight of the cat and don't know what to do. Their pet fish is the voice of wisdown:

But our fish said, "No! No! Make that cat go away! Tell that Cat in the Hat you do not want to play. He should not be here. He should not be about. He should not be here when your mother is out!"

At the end of the story the house is a complete disaster, but the Cat comes back and, with a fantastic cleaning machine and to the children's delight, completely restores the house to pre-Cat-In-The-Hat state. Then the big question comes as Mom walks in,

"Should we tell her about it? Now, what should we do? Well... What would you do if your mother asked you?"

I asked Emmett what he would do. He said, "I'd ask my Mommy to clean up the mess."