Tortoise and "I Told You So"

My wife pointed out that sometimes I'm an "I told you so" kind of person. I guess it sometimes seems the most logical way to drive a point home. The following experience helped me realize how harmful "I told you so" can be:

We've always told our kids not to jump around the tortoise (named Walker) when we take him outside to walk around, but they always do. Our oldest got too excited and accidentally landed right on the tortoise. I was inside feeding our baby when I heard my wife let out a horrified gasp. I ran outside to see her examining  the tortoise, who had retreated into his shell, wondering if he was dead.

A feeling of anger welled up inside both my wife and me, and I knew both of us wanted to shout, "I told you this would happen if you jump around Walker!" But, I looked over at our son, sobbing and saying, "I'm sorry Walker. I'm sorry Walker. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to," and knew that a lecture was unnecessary and would probably crush him. I've never see our son so scared or so sincerely sorry.

So instead, we exercised all the self-control we could muster, put our arms around our son, and tried to comfort and reassure him. Walker seems fine now. My wife caught my son as he landed on the tortoise and probably broke some of the fall. My wife's family had the same thing happened to their tortoise years ago, and he died the next day. We don't know what will happen to Walker, but if he should die, we're glad we resisted the urge to say, "I told you so."