This is one of those random comments that was built by each child adding a phrase. One child said, “Every time someone complains an angel loses its wings” a twist on the Christmas idea from It’s a Wonderful Life of “every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings.” Then another child said, “and falls to earth” and another added, “and lands on a goat” to which lastly was added “in New Jersey”.
This silliness turned into a light hearted way to chase away complaining while we were on vacation. It was the children holding each other accountable and it was so effective that I thought we had experienced the first complain free vacation.
On the ride home my ears perked up when I heard, “there goes another goat.” “What was that?” I asked. Chuckles filled the car while the children explained the little game they had been playing all week.
At the first sign of complaining they would admonish one another with some part of the above phrase. They might have said, “look out! falling angel”, “are we in New Jersey?”, “another set of wings bites the dust”. Like I said, I missed all this fun, but I am thankful for their creativity, it really made for a pleasant vacation.