while his father was still saying, “See here, young man.”

Laurie is obviously dismissive of his father, and the boy is rude and disrespectful again the next day when he chants an insulting little rhyme at his father, ending with the line, "Gee, you're dumb." The next week, he comes home from school and is insolent to his father again. 

Laurie said, climbing into his chair at the table, “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop.”

What makes Laurie's father ineffectual is that he does nothing when his kindergartner is dismissive and insulting. He might as well not even be there, if all he is going to do is be the butt of his son's immature little jokes. This is obviously not teaching his son anything positive. Later, a parent-teacher meeting is held. Laurie's mom is sick and of course his father does not attend. The next month, Laurie's mother does go to the meeting, but all her husband does is tell her to invite Charle's mother over for tea so he can "get a look at her."

Laurie consistently speaks disrespectfully to his father, and his father allows it. In fact, he barely even reacts to the things his son says. It is true that Laurie's father is unobservant; however, in his defense, Laurie's mother is much more engaged with her son and she does not realize the truth about the fictional Charles either. Because he is present but does nothing and has virtually no impact on the rearing of his son, I call Laurie's father ineffectual. 

On the surface, the relationship between Laurie and his parents seems quite typical. When he starts kindergarten, he starts wearing jeans instead of overalls and this shows how he is becoming more independent. He begins taking a more active role in who he is. Laurie uses this stage of his development to try different things. The narrator (mother) notes how he becomes more thoughtless and insolent when talking with his father. Laurie is testing the limits of what he can and can not get away with. Laurie tests his parents' and teacher's patience. While this is also a typical phase that many children go through, it does seem that Laurie goes a bit too far. Laurie knows this as well. That's why he creates an alter-ego in order to do the things that he knows are wrong. On the other hand, he also attributes his good deeds with Charles. Note that it is Charles who acts as the teacher's helper. By acting out, via Charles, Laurie creates a problem in his relationship with his parents. He uses a lie (not telling them that he is Charles) in order to tell the truth. 

The relationship between Laurie and his parents is troublesome because Laurie lies about what he has been doing at school and he is rude to his parents. On the other hand, Laurie tells them everything he does; he just uses his alter-ego as a way of disclosing everything. Their relationship would best be described as complicated or problematic. He tells them everything Charles does but does not tell them that he is Charles. So, it is an odd paradox of lies and truth. Their relationship is therefore paradoxically healthy but also problematic. 

Laurie says that he thinks Charles will be thrown out of school.

Charles is not real. He is an invention of Laurie’s imagination. Laurie had a difficult time adjusting to kindergarten. His parents had a new baby at home, and not much time for him. The combination of circumstances led Laurie to act out at school and at home.

Laurie comes home every day with wild stories about what Charles did and how the teacher reacted. His parents are entertained but not overly concerned by these stories. They never guess that Laurie is describing his own actions.

The next day Laurie remarked at lunch, as soon as he sat down, “Well, Charles was bad again today.” He grinned enormously and said, “Today Charles hit the teacher.”

“Good heavens,” I said, mindful of the Lord’s name, “I suppose he got spanked again?"

When Laurie comes home and tells his father that Charles kicked the teacher’s friend, Laurie’s dad takes a half-hearted interest in the situation.

“What are they going to do about Charles, do you suppose?” Laurie’s father asked him.

Laurie shrugged elaborately. “Throw him out of school, I guess,” he said.

Laurie’s answer to this question is a window into his young mind. Laurie doesn’t like school. This is the first time he has gone to school, and he finds conforming to the rigid expectations difficult. He seems to be hoping that if he is bad enough, he will just be kicked out of school.

It doesn’t work, and eventually the teacher is able to get through to Laurie. He starts to behave himself and have fewer and fewer incidents. His parents still have no idea that Laurie is Charles until Laurie’s mother sees the teacher at a parent-teacher conference. There, the teacher tells her that there is no Charles, and she realizes that it has been her son the whole time.

When Laurie's mother voices her reservations about kindergarten, Laurie's father tries to reassure her. He tells her that everything will be alright.

At the beginning of the story, we learn that Laurie's first days in kindergarten have been disruptive. On the first day, Laurie slams the door open upon his return. Instead of greeting his parents pleasantly, he yells at the top of his lungs.

When his parents question him about his first day, Laurie insists that he didn't learn anything at all. What he can say is that a boy named Charles was spanked for being rude and made to stand in the corner.

The next day, Laurie returns home and says that Charles hit the teacher. His actions, of course, earned him another spanking.

On the third day of kindergarten, Charles hits a little girl and makes her bleed. For this, he had to stay inside during recess.

On Thursday, Charles has to stand in the corner during story-time because he is disruptive and keeps pounding his feet on the floor.

Finally, on Friday, Charles isn't allowed to use the blackboard because he throws chalk. As Laurie recounts Charles's disruptive behavior, Laurie's mother becomes more and more worried.

She concludes that kindergarten may be too unsettling for Laurie. However, Laurie's father disagrees. He maintains that Laurie will meet difficult characters like Charles throughout life. Therefore, he may as well get used to them and learn how to deal with them.

Laurie's father views the disruptions in kindergarten as a learning experience and thinks that shielding Laurie from them will do little to prepare him for similar experiences later in life. His viewpoint may conflict with our modern sensibilities regarding disruptive behavior and bullying in school.