Care and Feeding

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Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here .

Dear Care and Feeding,

My wife “Tara” and I have two kids, “Noah,” 18 months, and “Gabrielle,” 4. Recently, my parents gave Gabrielle one of those remote control cars that can do stunts (think bouncing several feet in the air and spinning around on two wheels). She absolutely loves it! The problem is that Noah is utterly freaked out by it.

He has a fit whenever he sees or hears it. Tara has now taken the car away, and Gabrielle is extremely upset. My position is that Noah will get used to it if he comes to see it as just part of the household landscape. But Tara wants to return it to my parents. She says keeping the car is out of the question since it scares our son so much. Noah is afraid of the vacuum cleaner (and his own shadow if I’m being honest), and I don’t see us getting rid of that or giving up using it.…