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This winter, my eight-year-old son, Nick, became obsessed with building snowmen in the same corner of our front yard. Our grumpy neighbor, Mr. Streeter, kept driving over them, no matter how many times I asked him to stop. I thought it was just a petty neighbor issue—until Nick quietly told me he had a plan.
Nick would burst through the door after school, cheeks pink, eyes bright. “Can I go out now, Mom? Please? I gotta finish Winston.” He named every snowman, gave them personalities, even wrapped them in his ratty red scarf.
One by one, the snowmen died. Nick came in angry, sad, frustrated. “He’s the one doing the wrong thing,” he said. I tried reasoning, moving the snowmen closer to the house, but Nick refused. “That’s my spot.”
Then Nick whispered, “I have a plan.” I imagined a harmless sign or writing “STOP” in the snow. What he actually did was bold. He built a massive snowman—our “special” one—directly over the fire hydrant at the edge of the lawn.
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