What does "I love you" mean to a 3-year-old boy?

It was a quiet evening - just me and my baby girl and my baby boy. A rare, quiet evening. Katie has been on a school trip all week. Madi was babysitting and Brad - off on a fishing venture. I was sitting in front of my Mac, perusing my online world with Ben on my lap. He was squirming and begging. "Please mommy, can we go to the park? Please?" He wanted to go to the little park in our neighborhood - just 2 houses away.

I kept giving him reasons why we couldn't go. "Ben, it's almost time to go to sleep . . . It's getting late . . . It's almost dark." The reality - I just didn't feel like going to the park. Lazy, I guess. I wanted to play on the computer, I guess. Plus it was hot outside. Besides, we had just come inside after spending almost an hour enduring the 90+ degree temperature.

I hadn't planned on staying outside when we walked my mom to her car after she stopped by for a few minutes, and I warned Ben of this fact, telling him it was too hot to stay outside. He didn't care, & out we stayed. After spraying the grass with the hose, traversing the sidewalk on scooters, waving to neighbors entering and exiting the neighborhood, and sweeping the gutters along with our driveway and the driveway next door, Ben and Lacey finally decided they were hungry for dinner and wanted to go in.

So when we came inside, in my mind, we were done for the night. I knew Ben wanted to go to the park, but I knew he also needed to eat dinner and that daylight was waning. I figured if I had to, I could remind him of the bobcat sometimes seen looming outside our neighborhood and Ben would definitely give up the "go to the park" idea. Things were going well. It was 7:40 and almost dark. It was just about time to get ready for bed. But then the begging began. I fought the begging for a few minutes, and then contemplated, "why am I resisting this? It's just me and my little kids. I really have no other obligations but being with them right now."

So I said, "OK Ben - let's go to the park, but just for 15 minutes, then it's time for bed."

And his jubilant reply, "OK! Yay!! This means you really love me, mama! Come on Lacey, we're going to the park!"

And you know what - after 15 minutes, Ben said, "I'm ready to go home, mama." Only 15 minutes - doing something I didn't really feel like doing initially - but my little boy went to bed knowing his mama loved him. So simple . . . so why do I make it so difficult sometimes?