The ambition of little dictators

Once upon a time...

There was a little boy who, though he was no more than four years old, 

had the soul of an emperor. 

Sadly, his closest friends and family members were all a bit older than him in years and when the time came to annex the worlds lands and incorporate them into their own realms, he often got only what they had left over or were gracious enough to hand over.  

The boys discussed this annexation as they played on what might seem to you to be just an ordinary swing set placed behind an ordinary ranch style home on a small corner of an ordinary cattle farm in West Virginia, but for them it was a platform for ruling the world.  Their mother (a rather ordinary mother) was inside this home, enjoying the peace and quiet and using the time to get a few chores done when she heard sounds of distress.  The siren-like sound of a four year old who wasn't getting what he wanted.  As he burst through the door, his mother asked him, "Grant, what's the matter?"

She could tell that it was quite upsetting and that it most likely had something to do with the two eight year old boys that he had been playing with, but she couldn't possibly imagine what it was.

"Grant, what's wrong?"

Wail, sob, sob, sob..."I want ROME!!!"

"I'm sorry, honey, you want what?"

Sob, sniffle, sob, sob.... "I want Rome! but they won't let me have it!"

Oh, dear... what's a mother to do?  Certainly, there is a temptation to tell the older boys to give the little one what he wants, but they did lay claim to it first. 

And as one of the boys mentioned, "You don't get to be the ruler of the world by giving away all of your land."

He had a point.

So mommy held her little Napoleon and comforted and soothed him with these words, "Don't worry, just wait until you're a little older, then you can be president.  Then you can have anything you want."

It may not have made sense and it may not be true, but to her ambitious little ruler, it was exactly what he needed to hear. 

Well... sort of...

Somewhere deep inside, I think that he still would have liked to have taken over Rome.