146 The Explosive Childvery different way and with a completely different out-
come.What about the real world? What if my child has a Plan A
boss someday?A Plan A boss is a problem to be solved. How does your
child learn problem-solving skills? Plan B. As discussed else-
where, which skill is more important for life in the real
world: the blind adherence to authority taught with Plan A
or learning how to work things out with people, as taught
with Plan B? Your humble author picks Door Number Two.
For example, a speed limit is an expectation, and there
are Plan A reasons for not speeding and Plan B reasons for
not speeding. The Plan A reason for not speeding is that you
might get caught and have to pay a fine. The Plan B reasons
for not speeding? You don’t want to die. You don’t want to
kill someone else. You don’t want your children to grow up
without you. If the only reason you’re not speeding is that
you might get caught and have to pay a fine, then there’s a
pretty good chance you’ll be speeding if there’s some assur-
ance you won’t get caught (Exhibit A: the popularity of
radar detectors). In which case you (and the rest of us) are
still completely dependent on others (the police) to keep
you in line. But if you’re not speeding because you don’t
want to die, or you don’t want to kill someone else, or you
don’t want your children to grow up without you, then it’s